Great Grandpa Cap
by youngjusticefanatic
Summary: There's another death in the Parker family leaving Peter without any relatives... or so he thought. Extensive research done to find any living relatives finds some interesting information leading back to WW2. Apparently he does have a relative who is shockingly able to look after him.
1. Chapter 1

**To all those reading The Secrets we Hold, I've not given up on it, I just need to get in the swing of writing again and hopefully this will do the trick**

**This order of events:**

- **Captain America: the first avenger**

- **Amazing Spiderman**

- **The Avengers**

- **Iron Man 3 (Although pretend this was in January of 2013)**

- **This is set around March 2013 (no idea why)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Spiderman or Captain America nor any character mentioned from the marvel universe. I do not get paid for writing, I just like to manipulate the characters for some non profit fun and entertainment.**

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><p>"You know, Gwen, you look beautiful when you're concentrating." Peter Parker mentioned as he brushed some of her hair that had fallen in front of her face, covering it from his view. Gwen Stacy was sitting on her floor with a needle and thread in hand, stitching up a cut on the right hand side of Peter's bare chest as he leaned on her bed.<p>

Gwen stopped with her had in mid air and gave a small giggle.

"You know Peter, you get very distracting when you talk." Gwen replied imitating the same breathy voice Peter had just used. Peter gave a low laugh. It was only a light one because otherwise it would hurt his stomach more or break his stitches, and then Gwen would be mad. Peter raised his hands slightly in surrender and let Gwen's hands work their magic.

Within ten minutes, Gwen made an expert knot to finish of her work and cut off any extra medical thread.

"You know," Gwen said as she started putting bloody things away, "I'm not a doctor, you should probably see a professional when you get hurt like this."

"Yeah," Peter said putting on a smirk as he watched her clear up, "but none of the doctors are as pretty as you."

Gwen sat back down on her floor and Peter grabbed her left hand and started tracing patterns in it.

"Nor," he continued, "do they have such soft hands."

Gwen grinned as she drew her hand away and then smacked Peter softly on the head.

"Just stop making this a regular occurrence! Soon there won't be any part of your chest without a scar on it!" Gwen huffed half seriously.

"Oh come on!" Peter groaned, "It's only the third time!"

"In a month!" Gwen finished pushing away from Peter.

"Come on! This one was an accident!" Peter cried trying to pull her back.

"So was last time apparently!" Gwen muttered.

"I was up all night trying to finish that stupid history essay in for today only to find out it's in for Monday! I then had to fix my costume and there's a really interesting article on gamma radiation that Dr Banner put up recently, apparently he's started researching again." Peter explained. Gwen gave him a long look before collapsing in front of him again, just not so close.

"I was half asleep when I took on those thugs, and I didn't expect to run out of web fluid mid fight either!" Peter complained. Gwen gave a laugh.

"Today just really isn't your day, is it?" she giggled sympathetically. Peter gave a pathetic moan hoping for more sympathy and maybe a sympathy kiss. No such luck. That moment the apartment door could be heard opening and the click clack of the now widowed Stacy's heels echoed through the single story flat. Then there were the lighter foot falls of Gwen's younger brothers running through the house which only Peter's super hearing picked up until they stomped closer to the door.

"Go!" Gwen whispers urgently.

"Gwen?" her mother calls.

"Quick, go!" Gwen repeats before pushing Peter to the window.

"Gwen?" another call.

"Now!" Gwen whispered loudly as she pushed him out the window. Peter stole a quick kiss before hiding from view as Gwen shut the window. Peter heard part of the conversation going on inside the house as Gwen conversed with her mother and he sorted out his suit and then put the mask on.

He felt the tear where an idiotic accident had allowed his adversary to put a blade into his side and cursed silently as he realised it would be another late night stitching up the rip. Thankfully it was Friday so he could sleep in. He only had to be awake to go to a birthday party for himself celebrating 17 years of his life gone by. He was sure he could be awake by at least 3pm if Aunt May didn't hover.

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><p>About twenty miles outside of New York Steve Rogers was parking his Harley Davidson outside a comfortable looking B&amp;B. He had been searching through archives of where his beloved Peggy had moved to after the war. Today had been the most depressing day of his search, not because he had come up with a blank, but because he had found out something. There's a saying, no news is better than good news. Right now, Steve wanted to make that his motto in life. He had found out that Peggy had a child after his disappearance. There was no record of which year but within three years of his disappearance. In the archive he had looked in there had been no further information on the child, only that Peggy had died 50 years later from an unknown illness. He guessed that he could go and ask Fury for help, use SHEILD resources to look into what had happened to her and her child but he didn't want to, he liked doing it the old fashioned way.<p>

With that in mind, Steve grumpily stumbled into the small B&B in hopes that the owner/s would not recognise him and he could have a hassle free evening feeling sorry for himself. As it turns out, they knew who Captain America was, they were just clueless on who Steve Rogers was. Steve went to his single bed room and lay in the plain white room. Other then the brown carpet, this room would have reminded Steve of a hospital if he was paying attention. He was bored. He couldn't get a proper job because he had no house, no previous occupation (unless you count being Captain America) and lord forbid he learn how to use the internet or other modern devices. He would need a mobile number and an email address to even fill out the application form, that was, if he didn't have to use the internet to find the form in the first place.

Then there was the new information on Peggy. She had a child! She had moved on without him and now he finds out she's dead! Steve wished he could just go back in time, be unfrozen within a day of that fatal crash. No, he wanted to go back to just before Bucky's death, he wanted to change that, stop his best friend from dying. Everything seemed so complicated in his head. Then Steve looked at his watch. He had been mopping for over an hour!

_No!_ He thought to himself, _what's happened has happened, I can't change that, I can only live with it. I'll adapt. As for Peggy, I'm glad she's moved on, it means she was happy! All I ever wanted was for her to be happy!_

After settling each of his nagging thoughts, Steve closed his eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep on top of his bed in the clothes he had entered in.

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><p>Peter was right when he thought he would sleep in... that was until aunt May decided to give him a wake-up call.<p>

"Come on, Peter, up you get!" she cried through the door,

"Mmmmmmmmmnnnnnnnn" came the mumbled response of Peter. He burrowed further into his duvet to drown out the noise and enter the bliss of sleep that he had just come out of. Unfortunately he heard his door swing open and the sound of his shutters being opened. Even through shut eyelids and a thick duvet, Peter was sure it had gotten brighter.

"Mmmmmnnnnnnn." He moaned unintelligently again. He heard his aunt chuckle before feeling a cruel rush of cold air as his cover was snatched away from him. Peter shielded his eyes as they accidentally burst open temporarily blinding him from the bright light.

"I don't care if it's your birthday." Aunt May said as she looked around her nephew's tornado destroyed bedroom. "I want you up so I can give you your birthday present and we can have lunch."

Peter peeked from under his hand to see his aunt's face. Lunch? It couldn't be that late. He then turned his wrist to look at his watch and saw that it was in fact going on 1:30pm. Peter groaned to show he was responsive of May's request before sluggishly rolling into sitting position and blearily looking at the wall opposite him. May took this as her cue to leave and dropped the duvet cover on the end of Peter's bed before leaving the room with a grin covering her face. Peter had hilarious morning hair most days.

Peter had a nice quiet lunch with his aunt. She had brought him a new one since his old one had somehow disappeared. Peter may or may not have mentioned that an extra strong villain who called himself the rhino decided to run into the large green dumpster where he had hidden his civilian clothing, school bag and precious skateboard. The school bag, the books (and the homework) were salvageable. The clothes needed a wash (maybe two or three to get rid of the smell) but the skateboard was demolished. Peter also got some new t-shirts and an expensive looking lens for his camera. He knew they were tight on money since Uncle Ben's death but apparently Ben had been planning to buy the lens at some point so May just fulfilled a dead man's wish. Peter was grateful and gave her a smile.

Once lunch was over, Peter explained that he wanted to go and test out his new skate board and tested it all the way to the abandoned warehouse where he learnt the extent of his powers. He then webbed his skateboard, civilian clothes and shoulder bag into a hidden hole in the ceiling, just in case, made sure he had extra web fluid and then left to have a birthday swing through the streets of Manhattan.

Peter whooped as he flipped through the air; enjoy an afternoon workout with the breeze rushing through the lightweight spandex.

After stopping two robberies, one on a convenience store and one consisting of a young lady being parted from her handbag, Spiderman headed back to get his belongings before skating home in high spirits.

"Today is a good day!" Peter exclaimed when he charged through the door. His aunt moved into the hallway to see what all the commotion was about and got a peck on the cheek from her relative. He then squeezed past her and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl before propping himself onto a counter.

"I take it you had a good afternoon." Aunt May stated rather than asked.

"This-" Peter raise the skateboard, "is a thing of beauty! And the camera lens – I won't need to Photoshop most of my work! It already looks like a perfect piece of art."

"I'm glad you like it, now, get of my nice clean counters and go and get changed, you're going out with Gwen in an hour and knowing you, you need to scrub rather ferociously under those armpits!" May exaggerated with a small smile before whacking her nephew out of the kitchen.

"I do not smell _that_ bad!" Peter retorted as he spun round to face his aunt. She raised an eyebrow. Peter took a whiff of his underarm and then dropped his arm. Gave her a you-are-right look and headed upstairs for a much needed, much deserved, warm shower.

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><p>Steve had gotten bored of lying in bed after half an hour and decided that, if any further leads on the life of Peggy Carter came out cold – which they did – then he would enjoy a pint of beer at a local pub, which this town was not lacking. He sat in an old fashioned pub which looked and smelled like it hadn't been refurbished or properly cleaned since the 1940's. The only feature that seems to have been added in the last twenty years was the television, but even that looked like it was the first model of coloured TV. Currently, the news was playing with that annoyingly loud anchorman J Jonah Jameson. He seemed to have become obsessed with this guy who called himself Spiderman. To most normal people, it looked like the guy had done a good job, stopped a robbery or something. To Jameson, Spiderman had conducted the robbery he had supposedly stopped. It was all very confusing and so the dear old captain stayed out of it and just focused on the taste of modern beer. He stayed sat there being quite unresponsive for three pints before his attention was drawn back to the news. Apparently Tony Stark was expanding his eco-friendly energy thingy. Steve couldn't be bothered to focus on the long words, he just knew that it gave electricity and energy to the Stark tower (which was being rebuilt) and now it seemed that Stark was ready to share it with the world. He guessed that Bruce Banner probably helped speed up the process of figuring out finer details and building up Tony's confidence. After the Loki incident, he seemed less keen to work on that project but it appeared as though all that had passed. One thing he did know was that Tony had, for some reason unknown to Steve, blown up all his Iron Man armours.<p>

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><p>An hour later Peter was clean and smelling fresh. He was going out to see a film with Gwen, not because he spent every living moment (or at least most of them) with her, but because he didn't actually have many other friends. He was getting on with the new guy at school, Harry something or other – Harry Osborn – but not enough to go out with for a birthday thing. Maybe another time.<p>

Anyway, Peter said goodbye and goodnight to his aunt. He bid her not to stay up waiting for him and then left 'walk' to Gwen's house. By most other people's standards, Peter was running late, for Peter, he was going to be too early.

_Ah, the troubles of having spider powers_. Peter pondered as he flung towards Gwen's apartment building. He landed outside the front and texted Gwen. The door man of her building didn't seem to like Peter and glared at him while he waited. Finally Gwen came down and rushed over to Peter. Peter then dragged her unceremoniously around the corner and away from the glaring eyes of the scary doorman before he allowed himself to appreciate how beautiful Gwen looked this evening.

"You understand that you look stunning this evening. It is supposed to be my night, but you outshine me." Peter commented with sarcastic hurt dripping in his voice.

"Well, at least I know I've accomplished something." Gwen said smiling and taking Peter's hand before they walked together towards the cinema. Peter raised an eyebrow in suspicion, "I've had your aunt take your money out of your wallet so I can pay and make it your night."

Peter frantically started patting his pockets until he located his wallet and lo and behold, there was enough money for a taxi fare if he became desperate. Peter cursed under his breath before he noticed Gwen was staring at him with a small smile.

"Fine, you win this round." Peter mumbled before smiling as the two of the nattered along the way.

The film was a comedy, not a lot of romance with lots of jokes. Afterwards they went out to a little Italian and had a great meal. Sods law came into play though. Gwen was wearing a white topped dress with a navy blue bottom and Peter had a white shirt. Both ended up with red stains from their meals of spaghetti ragu and spaghetti pomodoro. Finally, Peter left Gwen at her apartment building and walked back the thirty minute walk to his road, only to be stopped briefly when he saw a police car parked outside of his house. There was also an ambulance and a fire truck as well as a large crowed. Peter ran forwards to investigate what had happened only to stop when he saw the scorch marks through the window.

He didn't need to be told what happened, he already knew.

**What do you think? Should I continue?**


	2. Chapter 2

**It appears I will be continuing this story... It may or may not have had something to do with the 12 or so reviews I received in less than 24 hours. Instead of responding to them all, I thought you would rather I updated sooner, so here is your update. An absolutely massive thank you to everyone who reviewed or fav/followed this story! You've made my discombobulated morning/day a bit more enjoyable.**

**Also, this story won't be a romance, I just needed a way to start it and Gwen seemed like the right way to go. If you like her though, she'll make a few more appearances.**

**I don't know the protocol if all your family is dead but for the sake of the story, if I get it wrong, just go along with it.**

Time slowed down for Peter. He wasn't truly sure what happened next, it was all just a slow motion blur. Someone had noticed him in the crowed as the boy who lived in the house. He was pushed forwards through the crowed and ended up in front of a tired looking police officer. The man asked him some questions, Peter wasn't sure whether he had answered them or not but from what he remembered, the man nodded occasionally and then he was put in a police car before being driven off.

At some point that evening (or maybe in the early hours of the next morning) Peter ended up in a chair in a warm office. He was sure he had heard at least five "It'll be ok son" or some variation in one hour, he wasn't really paying attention, and there had been loads of people squeezing his shoulder or giving him a pat on the back. It never really registered. A female civilian clothed officer sat in a comfortable chair across from Peter and spoke in a soft, patronizing voice while staring at Peter. He couldn't hear a word she was saying, he just wanted her to shut up and let the floor suck him up.

"Mr Parker?" a voice came through the abyss. "Peter, are you ok?"

Peter looked up and saw it was the female officer. He wanted to scream at her, shout that everything was not ok. Last year his life fell apart but he had been fixing it. Now his life shattered into fine dust before it was scattered in a wild blizzard. No, he was not ok.

In response though, his face stayed impassive and let her figure out if he was ok or not. Peter hadn't cried yet, he couldn't, he wasn't sure why.

The female officer, Susan (her name was on the Starbucks coffee on the desk behind her), put a 'comforting' hand on his knee.

"I'm not sure how much you've taken in Peter." Susan said, now she sounded genuinely comforting, "Your aunt's death was an accident. The evidence points towards the oven blowing up and causing the fire. Your aunt was standing next to the oven; her death was instant and painless."

Peter looked into Susan's eyes to make sure she wasn't lying. As far as he could tell, she wasn't and the thought of an instant death for Aunt May was comforting. Peter felt a tear welling up in his eye and gliding down his dry skinned face. His nose started to run so he sniffed. Susan reached for a box of tissues and Peter took it to hide his face and clear the tears.

"Do you have any family you can sta-"

"No." Peter's voice cracked, "No, she was my last one – my last relative."

He didn't want to see the sympathetic look in Susan's eyes. He let the tears flow smoothly down his face now. The dam had broken and there was no stopping it. His eyes were hidden by his hair that now covered his damp face.

Peter heard the scarping of a chair and then the sound of a door opening and closing. He knew Susan had left. Peter let some chocking noises escape his lips.

He wanted – no – he needed someone to blame, but there was only him. If he hadn't gone out that night she would still be alive, right? Was he laughing at one point in the film as his aunt burnt or was he taking a bite into a meatball. Maybe he was kissing Gwen. Was it unfair for him to have such a good evening while his aunt prepared for her death? Was she cooking dinner? Had she just watched something on TV and gotten bored. Could he have prevented?

These questions swam around Peter's brain, crashing into senses violently causing him to sob harder. Ten minutes later he couldn't cry anymore. He was drained emotionally, he felt more tired than doing an all-nighter as Spiderman. He was now a shell. Susan came back in with a uniformed officer and introduced him. Peter didn't hear a word of it. He then found himself sitting in a police car again with the officer from Susan's office. He was led into a building and found himself on a vaguely comfortable bed and hid under the cover, just as he had done less than twenty four hours ago, this time, no one was threatening him with stealing them.

He wasn't sure when it happened, but at some point that night, Peter's eyes had drooped and he had fallen into a dreamless sleep. No matter how many hours had passed (and by the position of the sun signalling midday) Peter did not feel like he had slept. Within seconds, he remembered the events of last night and gripped onto the duvet like it was a life line. No matter how much he squeezed, he couldn't hear Aunt May complaining at him to get out of bed.

There was a knock on the door and Peter's head slowly emerged from its hiding place. It was the officer who had driven him here.

"Good morning Mr Parker. Would you like some breakfast?" the officer asked. Peter shook his head. He really did not feel like eating at this moment. He then looked around and saw that he was in a hospital room. The policeman noticed him looking around his room.

"You went into shock last night Mr Parker -" Peter cut him off in a hoarse, dry voice.

"Peter." He croaked. The officer looked confused. " Mr Parker resembles too many dead men in my life."

The officer nodded understandingly.

"Well Peter, as I was saying, you went into shock last night. You were unresponsive and we didn't want you to do anything impulsive. I had to get a wheelie bed to take you from the car." The officer stated. He then took a seat next to Peter's bed. "My name is Officer Mark. I don't know if you picked that up last night. Anyway, we've paid for you to have this bed for twenty four hours but we should probably head off soon. I just needed to see if you were responsive."

Peter nodded as if he understood. People still sounded mostly like mumbles to him.

"We're going to find a children's home for you but we're tracing your family tree back to see if you have any living relatives. If we find anything, we'll be sure to inform you within a week."

Peter vaguely understood what was being said. He didn't want to cry again but the thought of leaving his house and living with strangers did not sound good. Mark realised he wouldn't get any verbal response from Peter so he continued.

"We can head over to your house and pick up anything salvageable. Anything you want to keep will be put into storage until you are of legal age to possess it again."

Peter nodded once more and then made to get out of bed once he located the on-suite bathroom. Mark stood up after noticing Peter's goal, said he would be back shortly and then vanished.

Mark came back ten minutes later and all Peter had had the energy to do was wash his face, rinse his mouth and use the toilet.

"The firemen say it's safe to enter your house. Are you ready?" Mark asked. Peter looked around the plain room, he felt oddly attached even though he had barely been conscious while in it. He then followed Mark out and went for another ride in a police car. He noted that this was the first time he was sitting in a front seat and not in the back like a criminal. If Mark knew who he was, he might throw him in the back, only this time, he would have the intention of treating him like a criminal. Spiderman was still unpopular in the world, especially with the police force. They blamed him for Captain George Stacy's death. The public was just getting accustomed to the idea of Spiderman and then that annoying anchorman J Jonah Jameson decided to ruin it all by saying he was a villain.

Peter then noted sadly that his aunt didn't actually know what he did most of the time. He had lied to her and never made up for it. He wasn't sure if he was felt happy or sad about that. He was sorry that he never got a chance to say sorry for lying all the time and coming home beaten up at stupid o'clock and then saying 'I'll explain later' but instead, he would avoid her.

Peter was pulled out of his thoughts when the car pulled to a halt.

"We're here." Mark said sadly. Peter reluctantly looked up and saw his house. At first glance it looked normal. Then, he noticed all the burn marks, the wet wood where the fire hose had violently tried to put out the roaring fire. Peter sighed before commanding his unwilling to get out of the car. He walked into the house and Mark followed a few feet behind.

Peter inspected the sitting room and then made his way to the kitchen. He felt tears role into his eyes as he saw his aunt's previously clean surfaces scorched and burnt. The house normally smelt nice, it smelt of home to Peter. Now that smell was overridden by the smell of burning and scorched material. Peter wasn't sure how long he spent staring at the kitchen, trying to accept that this was where his aunt died, before he moved out of the room and to the stairs. Peter saw that Mark had put boxes by the front door for him to fill. There were three in total. He decided to start filling them. He looked at the shoes by the door. One old pair had been burnt but Peter didn't care. He pick two pairs of non burnt trainers and his coat and two jumpers lining the wall on coat pegs. Under one particular blue jumper sat his aunt's navy cardigan. It had a lovely broach in it which Peter delicately removed before carefully sliding the broach in his pocket. It had a little owl sitting on a branch. The owl had bright stone eyes. Uncle Ben had bought it for her for their anniversary five years ago and she was rarely seen without it.

Peter then made his way upstairs. The floor felt weak under his feet so he trod carefully. He made it to his room and noted that his duvet was still unmade, his room was still a disgrace but there was a whole by the bottom of his bed that looked into the kitchen underneath made by the fire. Peter looked around his room deciding what he wanted to take. There wasn't much. Peter left the skateboards stacked up on his wall. He took a few bits of clothing, he could sell the rest. He snuck his box of Spiderman equipment from under his bed as well as his dad's old brief case and logically put them at the bottom of one of the boxes before dumping clothes and underwear on top. He then put his laptop in one of the other boxes after he filled the first one. He put his camera and its new lens on top and some of the pictures from around the room, some framed, some not. He then grabbed a few knick knacks from shelves and off his table before feeling that he didn't want anymore and then he paused. He saw a bit of brown paper poking out from under his pillow. Peter lifted his pillow and saw that it was an envelope. Peter picked up the letter. But didn't open it. He kept holding it.

He then moved through the rooms to his aunt and uncle's room. He wanted to take something other than just his aunt's broach. Finally, he decided to take his uncle's favourite shoulder sling bag to which he attached the broach. A bit of both of them, he decided, he slid the envelope he was holding into the bag. Then Peter felt a craving for one more thing so he made his way downstairs.

"Have you finished?" Mark asked unemotionally.

"I was wondering if I could retrieve two things from my aunt." Peter stated. The thought of taking something from her dead body made him shiver.

"And what would that be?" Mark questioned.

"She was wearing a necklace, just a plain silver chain with a gold wedding ring on it. I would like that and her wedding ring to add to the chain." Peter explained.

Mark looked like he was thinking for a moment before he nodded slowly.

"I'll see what I can do." He said before turning away to make a phone call.

Peter left Mark to make his call and wandered around down stairs. He still had one box to fill if he carried his jumpers. He really couldn't think of anything that he would miss. Don't misinterpret this, he would miss everything, nothing stuck out to him as something he would cry over if he didn't take it.

Within five minutes he was sat by the door just begging to leave. He didn't want to be in here anymore. Mark then came out of the kitchen.

"We can pick up your items from the morgue." Mark stated before offering to take a box. All the boxes were pretty heavy so Peter indicated to the lightest one and took the two heaviest ones like they were nothing. He heard Mark grunt at the weight and put his boxes in the trunk before stepping aside for Mark to do the same. He then, spontaneously fan into the house and ran upstairs and grabbed his most prized possession at this point. His skateboard. He ran back down, careful not to fall through the delicate floor and out the door. He almost caught his uncle's bag on the door on his way out. He then climbed in the car with the skateboard on his lap. Mark climbed into the driver's seat and took his place.

Mark pulled out of his parking spot and drove down the road. They reached the morgue too quickly for Peter's liking. He wasn't ready to see his aunt so he stayed waiting in the car while Mark retrieved his items. Mark was back within five minutes and handed Peter a sealed see-through bag before driving to their final destination, the children's home.

Peter opened the bag and slipped the necklace out into his hand. He unclasped the chain and put Aunt May's ring on to join Ben's. He then put the necklace on and hid the chain under his shirt. This was going to be a hard adjustment but Peter would do it, for them.

**What is the American 'of age', when you inherit things? In Britain it's 18 but is it 21 or something?**

**Did this chapter reach expectation? **


	3. Chapter 3

**33 reviews and I'm only on chapter two! How did that happen? Not that I'm complaining, I love you guys, your support is making update asap! Sorry, I was helping with a short film for the British Heart Foundation today so I didn't update sooner!**

**Remember, Aunt May's death was on a Saturday, Peter moved into the home on the Sunday.**

**Enjoy J**

Captain America stayed in the little town where Peggy had lived out the rest of her days. He found her tomb stone and mourned before heading back for one final night at the B&B. He wanted to go on a road trip tomorrow, just tour America, go back to places he had once visited in his time and see the changes, maybe find old friends, if any still lived.

The next morning, Steve paid for his room and the service with a generous tip. Fury had been kind enough to reopen an old bank account of his that had been gathering dust and interest for his whole time in the ice. It was a rather hefty sum, still nowhere near the billions that Stark owned but enough for a comfortable life for a decent part of his life in this modern age.

Steve and his Harley Davidson were on the road once more. He was driving before ten am and out of town before half past. Although there were traffic laws to abide to, once Steve found a long dirt road he went as fast as the old girl could take him and let the wind rustle his leather jacket, freeze his gloveless fingers and destroy his perfect hair. It was wonderful. His mind became clear and he became free of his worries. There was no modern technology, no modern dressed people and nothing that told him that he was out of his time. Fantastic. He had been driving for over an hour when he came to a larger town then the one he had previously been in. If there was one time he had used SHEILD resources for, it was to find out where his old friends lived. He found a man he had severed with called Timothy 'Dum Dum' Dugan. He knocked on the door, half praying the information was right, half hoping it was wrong. Steve waited for half a minute before he heard shuffling. Then, the door swung open and there stood a grumpy, grey, wrinkled old man.

The man looked up about to speak, by the look on his face, Cap half expected him to complain about disturbing him. Then the man gasped, like he had seen a ghost.

"Been a while Dum Dum." Steve greeted with a smirk. Timothy looked like he might have a heart attack. Given his age, Steve was scared he might.

"C – Cap?" Tim stuttered. Steve nodded and then, within seconds he was engulfed in a hug. Steve felt the man's shoulders shake and knew he was crying. This guy was not one for a sob fest but it seemed like he needed it.

Finally Tim pulled away.

"No one's called me that in years!" Tim announced randomly. Steve grinned and Tim smiled back. He then gestured for Steve to come in. He lead the way to the living room before muttering for Steve to make himself comfortable.

Steve looked around. By the seat Tim sat on were whiskey bottles (most empty), a few beer cans and one empty bottle of white wine.

"Still drinking then?" Cap questioned raising one eye.

"I went to Ireland after the war, found some new drinking partners, nothing like the wimps we have at home. For once, someone, other than you, could drink me under the table! It was a great challenge." Tim proclaimed proudly. Steve rolled his eyes before putting on a nostalgic smile.

"It's good to see you again, old friend." Steve said.

"I we talking age old or time old?" Tim questioned before muttering, "If it's about my age then you're just showing off you poncy prick!"

Steve's super hearing picked up the quiet muttering.

"Please don't tell me you're one of those old crones who waves their fist at young people shouting dumb things like get off my lawn." Steve almost begged.

"Youths are too radical these days, always drinking, thinking they're better then everyone!" Tim defended. Steve burst out laughing.

"Oh come on Tim, you did that! You were probably worse! You cannot complain about youths drinking, you were sharing stories of a drunk childhood around the pub table after drinking five pints. Five pints was when you turned honest!" Steve laughed.

Tim wanted to protest but then saw that any argument he made was invalid. Finally conversation changed and they nattered on about the good old days.

"So, what's the old gang up to?" Steve finally asked. Tim's face fell, his eyes turned gloomy.

"I'm afraid they're all gone. Only Falsworth made it to the end of the war. He then died two years ago from lung cancer. You remember, he used to smoke like a chimney. As the years past, he didn't improve." Tim mumbled as he remembered the past. Steve's face turned to a similar gloomy expression.

"Did he live nearby?" Steve asked.

"No, no. He kept travelling until he could travel no more. Then he was buried in Washington, his last place of residence." Tim explained, he glared at the floor as if it was the reason for all his friends' deaths.

Steve then changed the conversation to Tim's life after the war, all he had done, the women he had met. Life in general. Tim became a little more optimistic as conversation drove on. They talked into the late hours of the night. Then, Tim offered Steve a room for the night and they went off to their separate beds. Steve left early the next morning. He found out where his old friend James Falsworth was buried and headed in that direction. He knew the drive would take a while, maybe a few days if he took a longer, more scenic route.

By the time he arrived, it was Wednesday. He had been on the road most of the day. It had been fun but now he saluted his friend and then sat down and told him about what had happened since he had been unfrozen. He then reminded the gravestone that he had said all that smoking would give him an early grave. He wanted something to respond but not even the birds chirped in response. He sat there in silence for who knows how long before a loud sound of music, it sounded like something Tony listened to, came blasting from his duffle bag. Steve sighed before finally getting up to stop the noise. Maybe this time he would answer the phone without breaking it or somehow hanging up before he could answer it.

He succeeded!

"Rogers." He announced formally.

"Captain, I think your road trip is over. We need you to come in."

**Dun dun dun! Okay, don't worry, I'm already writing the next chapter. Before I finish, tell me what you think! I know it was a random filler chapter but I needed to add more on Cap.**

**Also, I do not live in America, I do not know almost any names of towns or cities. Then again I live in England and my geographical knowledge is still limited...**


	4. Chapter 4

**This is a disclaimer for any chapters past, present and future. I do not own any of these characters, they have their own respective owners, I just write about them for non-profit enjoyment.**

**Wow! Eight reviews in 3 hours! Thank you! Here is your reward, tomorrow, it's the big meet or at least more Pete ;) **

**Enjoy!**

Fury had apparently had someone close by. The driver of the SHEILD jet claimed he was just in the area but after Steve glared at him, he admitted that Fury may or may not have had him under surveillance and that if Steve heard that information, it wasn't from him. It took just over an hour and a half to get to the hellicarrier. It still floated above America with Fury's protective gaze watching over it.

When Steve entered the control room he saw Fury watching out of the large window.

"Director Fury." Steve said in greeting to catch the man's attention.

"Captain." Fury said as he turned around. They shook hands and got over the pleasantries as they walked to Fury's private office.

"So, what was so urgent I had to cut my holiday short? I thought you wanted me to connect with the changing world I am now a part of." Steve commented. He held too much respect to Fury to judge him, the man would obviously have a valid reason.

"Someone has been investigating the family tree of Margret Carter, also known as Peggy Carter." Fury stated bluntly. Steve sat there in shock. Of all the things he thought he had been called here for, he would never in his wildest dreams of expected to hear that.

"Director, I looked into her death I did no-"

"I'm not talking about you." Fury cut in. Steve stared at him blankly. He had no idea where this was going.

"What do you know about Carter after the war?" Fury asked.

"She had a child within three years of my disappearance and died from an unknown illness a while back." Steve replied. Now he was becoming sceptical. What did any of this have to do with him?

"You were frozen in January 1945. On the 20th of November 1945 Katherine Carter was born. In 1965, at the age of 20, Katherine married Tom Parker and that same year Ben Parker was born. Four years later, in 1970, Peggy had another grandson called Richard Parker. In the year 1990, Ben Parker married a woman called May. Three years later, his younger brother married a woman named Mary. In 1995 Peggy Carter died and a year later Peter Parker was born to Richard and Mary Parker. In 2001 Richard and Mary died leaving their only son to their childless in laws. In 2012 Ben Parker was shot dead. Last Saturday, May Parker died in a house fire." Fury explained. Steve sat their dumbfounded. He still couldn't understand how any of this was relevant to him. He was already doing the maths when Fury broke his thoughts.

"Carter had her one and only child within nine months of your disappearance. The DNA matches, she's your daughter."

Steve wanted to say something. Anything. His mind was drawing up blanks. Fury let all the information of the last two minutes sink in. All those births, all those deaths, they were from his family. The family he had never seen, the one that had passed without him knowing it existed.

Finally, after what felt like hours of deafening silence, Steve found his voice again.

"I – I checked the records, it said that Peggy didn't know the father." He stuttered, all this confusion was hurting his head.

"It was never put in the records. Officially, Katherine Parker nee Carter had a blank space on her birth certificate where her father's name should be." Fury confirmed. Steve just looked even more confused. Fury sighed before continuing. "Steve, what do you expect would happen to a child if someone thought they might have the super serum bred into them? What would happen if your advancements had been passed down?"

Steve started to understand but his brain was still processing too much to work at normal capacity so Fury filled in the blanks.

"This child would be experimented on. She would be taken away from her mother by scientists, kidnapped by villains. If word got out, she would never have a normal childhood." Fury explained.

Steve completely understood what he was being told but it still hurt that he was never officially a father.

"Did – did she ever know her true heritage?" Steve questioned.

"I don't know. Maybe Carter told her – your daughter when she was older, when she wouldn't go telling everyone." Steve nodded, that sounded responsible, it sounded like a Peggy idea.

Then, something from the family tree Fury had just detailed stuck out at him.

"You never mentioned Katherine dying!" Steve said sounding hopeful. Fury instantly felt guilty for leading Steve on.

"She and her husband died in a car accident in 1999." Fury added. Steve instantly looked horror stricken. He had no family, they had all come and gone while he slept! His last family had died while he was around, if only he had learnt this a year earlier!

As if Fury could read his mind he started talking again.

"There is one member of your family left." Steve looked up in surprise and then went through the family tree that Fury had told him about in his head.

There was a pause and then Steve noticed the glitch in the tree, the one thing that didn't add up.

"Peter." He whispered. Fury nodded.

"He's currently at a children's home in Manhattan. He'll be there for basically a whole year, when he turns 18... that is, unless you step in." Fury announced. He was eyeing Steve cautiously, trying to read the man's expression. Steve just looked surprised.

"But, you said my name wasn't on the record, I'm not stated as part of that family?" Steve was growing confused again.

"The official birth certificate is locked up. A false one stating no paternal figure was handed over to be put in the records." Fury explained.

"So, I would be announced as Katherine's father ergo, I would have the right to claim Peter under my guardianship?" Steve asked, he didn't want to get his hopes up but he could feel something brewing in his chest.

"Yes, well, sort of." Fury said, Steve looked confused again. "The social workers would need to see that you are fit to take care of a child, not that a seventeen year old needs much. They would need to see that you have a house and enough money to support yourself and Peter."

Steve's hope was snapped once more and he looked depressed.

"I have no house, I have no job and I have no idea how to care for a child, especially a teenager." Steve complained.

Fury, however, did not look so down trodden.

"I've been meaning to contact you for a while. Stark renovated his tower that was destroyed; he gave it a new name though. It's called the Avenger's tower and has a floor for each of you, I'm sure one of your spare rooms could be renovated as a room for Peter. As for income, you have enough money to secure you both for a while. All you need is a way to keep that going." Fury finished suggestively. Steve looked cautious.

"What are you suggesting?" He asked.

"Come and work for SHEILD." Fury said bluntly. "We'll pay you for defending New York against Loki and his army. We'll give you a starting salary. We won't give you many missions and they won't be long so that you can spend time with your great grandson but it'll keep your income steady and insure that you have guardianship over Mr Parker."

"What if Peter doesn't want to come with me though?" Steve asked, scared from entertaining the thought.

"If he says no then he says no. The likeliness of him saying no is very minimal though." Fury pointed out.

"When can I see him?" Steve asked gaining his composure.

"I'll get a meeting set up for Friday, that gives you time to think this over, think over what you're going to say and get used to your new home. Along with that, you have to explain this to Stark." Fury said with a small smirk.

Steve nodded. He thanked Fury and went to start his new life, as a guardian and an official SHEILD agent.

Maria Hill rang ahead and informed Pepper Potts, Tony's CEO, girlfriend and life organiser of Steve's planned arrival so that no one was shocked when he turned up.

It was around five in the afternoon when Steve arrived at the tower. He had been dropped off at an abandoned warehouse by the same SHIELD jet that had taken him to the hellicarrier. It still had his bike inside and he used that to drive through the ever busy streets of New York.

Once he found an area to secure his bike, Steve stood and looked at the impressive building that towered over New York.

_At least it doesn't look as ugly as it used to_ Steve rationalised. He had to push through a few people camping outside, hoping to glimpse at a famous Avenger or see the amazing Tony Stark himself. The Captain was so happy no one recognised him out of costume. Since he was expected, the security guard let him through and he walked into the ground floor. All things considered, the place looked pretty homely. There was a nice carpet, comfy seats and a friendly face smiling at him as he walked over.

"Hi Captain Rogers. I'm Pepper Potts, pleased to meet you." Pepper greeted as she stuck out her hand. Steve shook.

"Hello ma'am. Please, call me Steve. And the pleasure is all mine." He replied. Pepper smiled. He was such a gentleman, maybe him being here would rub off on Tony.

"Call me Pepper." She replied and they both smiled before Pepper moved over to the lift. It sprung open before she even had a chance to call it and out stepped the one and only Tony Stark.

"Capsicle, long time no see." Tony said practically shouting. Pepper rethought her previous notion of Tony ever become more like a gentleman, it was never going to happen.

"Stark, nice to see you again." Steve said honestly.

"Come on, I'll give you the grand tour." Tony said leading them back to the lift. It was abnormally large Steve noted. Then again, trying to fit Thor in a normal lift would have proved a challenge, let alone with anyone else.

Once the lift started heading up Tony turned to face Steve.

"I see you have met the wonderful and astoundingly amazing Pepper." Tony said casually. Pepper blushed slightly and Steve gave an acknowledging nod. "Well, at the moment, it's us three and Bruce living in the tower." Tony explained.

"How is Doctor Banner?" Steve asked.

"He's good, no episodes yet, he's got a firm lid on things. He seems to have lightened up a bit. I think he's enjoying the labs." Tony admitted.

"No thanks to Tony." Pepper muttered, "He keeps prodding Bruce but thankfully the poor man is in control and is one of the few who can handle Tony's behaviour."

Steve smirked slightly at the banter.

Finally the doors pinged open and they stepped out into a living room with several doors.

"This is your floor. You have a kitchen, sitting room, two bedrooms and a bathroom. If you need anything, ask Jarvis, you might remember my AI."

"Hello." A random voice said from somewhere in the room.

"We have a communal kitchen and sitting room on the fifth floor, yours is the seventh. We normally have dinner together but feel free to be Johnny no mates if you so wish." Tony finished. Pepper lightly elbowed him.

"Is there a gym nearby?" Steve questioned. He felt like he was asking for too much already.

"We have a sparring room on the tenth floor, a simulations room on the eleventh and a normal gym – with plenty of punch bags – and a swimming pool on the twelfth floor." Tony counted off.

Steve nodded slowly, it was very impressive.

"Anyway," Pepper interrupted, "we'll leave you to settle in and then you can join us for dinner if you want. We'll call you down."

"Thank you ma'am." Steve said bowing his head slightly. Tony and Pepper moved back to the lift and Tony waved as the doors closed behind them.

Steve wandered around his floor – he couldn't get his head around that expression. He owned a floor of a large building. Not many could claim that. Even less could claim that floor was in Sta – Avenger's Tower. The sitting room had a soft red carpet. There was a large flat screen TV. Like most other Stark tech, it just looked like a flat piece of glass but it could do a lot more than just look pretty. There were three sofas in a horse shoe facing the each other and with a view of the TV. On further investigation, Steve found that the sofas had a lever which allowed you lower the back of the seat and a foot rest came out. He promised himself to take advantage of that feature. There was always one thing he loved about modern technology, it made life more comfortable if you ignored the confusing hand held or even just complicated tech. In the middle of horse shoe was a rectangular wooden coffee table that went no higher than knee height. There were two remotes on it. Steve had no idea how to use either of them or what they did so he thought it best to just leave them and find a good book instead.

One wall was just glass looking out at a spectacular view of New York. Steve thought that if there were any fireworks, this would be the spot to watch it from.

Following that, behind one of the doors in the room was a rather nice kitchen with a stove and microwave with too many buttons. There was a table in the middle of the room with four cushioned chairs around it and a fruit bowl filled with oranges and bananas and apples. There was even a pineapple. Steve checked the fridge and found a mixture of snacks, readymade meals and then ordinary fish, meat and veg. There were also assortments of drinks on the shelves in the fridge door including orange juice, apple juice, beer and, of course, milk.

Steve found the two bedrooms. They looked practically identical. The walls were white washed and the floor was a simple light blue carpet. There were no decorations or pictures; he guessed that Tony expected him to fill the room. It also had a standard wardrobe, chest of draws and a bedside radio with a television opposite the bed.

The bathroom was in between the two bedrooms. It had a large shower, a sink with mirror and even a posh looking bath. There were soap bars in the appropriate places as well as hand towels and a normal towel. Steve later found a cupboard with a washing machine and dryer and spare towels.

Tony had thought of everything!

Steve then thought of who would hopefully be living here. Would this be too much or too little? Would Peter want to live here or would he stay at the home?

Steve then remembered what Fury had said. He would have to tell Tony at some point, and soon! Steve decided to not worry about it; he would tell them all at dinner. With that thought he went and unpacked before taking a nice relaxing shower.

At around seven pm Steve almost jumped out of his skin when the voice of Jarvis pulled him away from Middle Earth and out of Tolkien's literary work.

"Mister Rogers, Mister Stark is asking if you are coming down for dinner." Jarvis passed on. Steve evened out his breathing before replying.

"I'll be down in just a moment." Steve replied before he was left in silence again.

Steve rolled up off his bed and went to the lift.

Dinner turned out to be take away Chinese. Steve wasn't complaining, the duck chow mien was absolutely delicious.

He had seen Bruce Banner before he sat down and they had gone through the pleasantries before being interrupted by Tony and ordered to sit down. They had sat and said what they had been up to since they watched Loki and Thor disappear to Asgard while Pepper sat and listened, interested in what everyone had to say, even Tony, though she'd never admit it.

"What's up Capsicle?" Tony questioned as they started getting through the last of the meal. Steve put on a confused expression.

"What are you on about Tony?" Steve questioned knowing exactly what Tony was getting at.

"Let me rephrase that, what's wrong Steve?" Tony asked in a more serious tone of voice. Unfortunately Steve knew he couldn't put the inevitable off any further.

He sighed, thinking how to phrase this.

"I may have mentioned a woman named Peggy Carter from back when we were at war." Steve started. Two out of three people nodded. "Well, after I left she had a kid, that kid had kids and then they had a kid."

Tony was looking confused, _why should any of this bother Steve? If he's got family he should go and see them!_

"Well, it turns out, Peggy died, our daughter, Katherine died with her husband, then their youngest and his wife died. They had a son. He went to Katherine's eldest son and his wife. Now both of them are dead. I have a great grandson who I plan to take in. Can we live here?" Steve blurted everything out. He didn't know how else to phrase it, there was no easy way.

The three other people at the table sat in shock. Pepper was the first to regain her senses.

"Of course!" she cried. "I mean, you would have to share a floor but it's big enough and you have two bedrooms. I don't see any problem in it."

Pepper then nudged Tony who then nodded.

"Yeah, sure. I just have one question, is that the only reason you came back? So you could take in this kid?" Tony asked. He made it look casual but Steve could sense a hint of hurt in his voice.

"I've been thinking about what I'm going to do next for a while. I could never keep travelling or I'm doubtful about my luck on the job market. I didn't know this was up for offer until Fury called me in and explained my great grandson's situation." Steve explained honestly.

"So you did it for a bit of both then? To see us and get your relative in your custody?" Bruce asked in confirmation. Steve nodded. Tony relaxed and accepted that answer.

"So, what's he like?" Tony asked getting back to the meal.

"I don't know." Steve honestly remarked, "I'm meeting him on Friday. I know he's just turned seventeen and his name is Peter."

Tony looked like he was about to say something obnoxious or dumb but Pepper beat him to it.

"Well, I look forwards to meeting him." Pepper smiled kindly. Steve sent her a grin in return. That hadn't gone so badly.


	5. Chapter 5

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**Enjoy :)**

Peter was living life in a daze since Saturday. He hadn't been allowed to go back to school yet, he had been shoved in a home and he had just been told he was going to meet a great something or other who was potentially going to be his guardian. It was Wednesday today Peter found out in surprise. He wasn't sure he remembered Monday or Tuesday passing, like I told you before, life was a daze.

There was no one exceptional in the house that stood out to Peter. Seven other people lived there with two house parents patrolling on a rota. Four of the residents were guys and three were girls ranging from nine to seventeen. They had said hi, they had tried to include him in their conversation and they had left him alone. Most of them knew the need to mourn, the others had been shoved in enough homes to know that Peter just wanted to be left alone. He didn't even have enough energy to go out as Spiderman.

Peter came out of his fogged up brain when he processed what the house parent had told him about five minutes ago – he had a relative left! Then again, it was supposed to be his great something or other, the guy (or girl) was probably an old coot who was hunted down and being guilt tripped to take him in. Peter then thought of running away. If his great relative had somehow survived then they must have extraordinary powers, everyone in the family died: his parents, his grandparents and his aunt and uncle. This person deserved to live. Then again, Peter could just say no and not bother going. Peter guessed he just had to wait.

Peter sat in his room, his three boxes of things were still untouched on stacked in a corner of his room, well at least, his shared room. There was a bunk bed up against one wall and a chest of draws up against the other with a single window looking out onto the street on the third wall and a door into the dull, dirty corridor on the forth.

Peter shared a room with a kid named Vince. Vince seemed nice, he was a bit boisterous and with Peter being a constant downer at the moment, he spent most of his time in his friends' rooms. Peter was perfectly happy with this and welcomed the silence. Peter crawled to the end of the bed to the corner were all his belongings were stacked and pulled his uncle's bag into his lap before lying bag down and fingering the owl broach, it was so smooth yet so detailed. Peter rummage through the content. Aunt May had never gotten round to clearing out the bag, it would have hurt too much. Peter found his uncle's daily planner. It had parent's evening dates filled out and dinner dates with aunt May and other friends. Peter slammed the book shut, he didn't want to go into a further depression. He then found the letter that had been under his pillow. It had aunt May's handwriting scrawled on the front and it smelled of her hand cream. Peter took a deep breath before opening the card and saw that there was a folded up A4 piece of paper with half the page filled out in big hand writing.

_Dear Peter,_

_Happy Birthday, I know I've said it 100 times today but I can't believe you're all grown up. Now I know I should be confronting you, talking to you face to face, and if, when you finish reading this, we can talk if you want. I just thought this would stop any awkward confrontations or anything like that. Anyway, back to the point. I know what you do in your spare time, I wished you would stop lying to me but at the same time I don't want you to. If you're anything like your father, you're stubborn. You won't stop this even if I beg you. I know you're Spiderman. Before you ask how I figured it out, it wouldn't take Sherlock to guess. You come home with bruises, you've turned the washing a mix of blue and red and every time the vigilante is on the news you either come home with bruises or come down to breakfast with bruises. I also went to check on you at three in the morning and your bed was empty but the window was open. I'm not sure if I'm happy with your extracurricular activities but whatever you choose, I'll support you and keep shouting at that rude reporter!_

_All my love,_

_Aunt May._

Peter stared at the letter, May had known? And she was alright with it? This took a huge weight off his chest, his aunt knew and understood! For some reason, this made Peter look forward to Friday and meeting his relative.

Friday came too quickly for Steve. He didn't sleep well last night, the nerves were eating into his stomach. He didn't know why he was so nervous! Either Peter would want to live with him or not. It was just – I don't know – Peter was a part of him! He had had a daughter! Peggy had never married, she had stayed faithful to him! The thought made him giddy. Finally it was morning, an acceptable time to do a morning workout. Instead of going to the simulations room or hitting countless punch bags, Steve opted for the pool and dove in to start off his forty five minute workout.

It was eight o'clock when he had finally got the smell of chlorine out of his hair and he was dressed for breakfast. His meeting with Peter was at nine so he headed downstairs for a breakfast of porridge and then he would head off.

"So, how far away is the home?" Tony asked as Steve tucked into his breakfast.

"Half an hour away." Steve said before swallowing another mouthful.

"Car or walking?" Tony pestered.

"Car." Steve announced and then he felt dumb. He didn't have a car and Tony knew it!

"Well then, when do we leave?" Tony asked grinning; he knew he had caught him. He would get to meet the Cap's great grandson, cool! He knew that Steve knew this too from his expression which easily showed that he was trying to hold back a groan.

Peter woke to his roommate, Vince, shaking him awake.

"Come on dude! You're getting out of this hell hole! Nancy told me to get you up, your meeting is in ten minutes." Vince shook harder. Peter moaned in response and then rolled out of bed before realising what Vince had just said; TEN MINUTES?!

Peter sat up and ran to the bathroom. He tried to tame his unruly hair before giving up and brushing his teeth, he couldn't be bothered with breakfast. That meant that Peter was ready within eight minutes and downstairs by nine. At the bottom of the stairs stood Nancy, the parent on duty at the moment.

"Cutting it close, Parker." Nancy noted before fussing over Peter's hair and the creases in his t-shirt. Finally she gave up and led him to an empty room with only a plain table and four chairs surrounding it. It was one of the conference rooms where potential parents might come in and adopt a child. Peter never thought he would see the inside.

Nancy left Peter to his nerves and Peter sat in the chair with his back to the door. He looked at his watch and saw that his relative was almost five minutes late, maybe he/she wasn't going to show! Maybe they didn't want him anymore! For the next minute and a half those sort of thoughts buzzed around Peter's scientific mind until the sound of voices became louder outside as they approached the door. He heard someone gripping the door and didn't turn around to see who might come through.

Tony was being a pain, they had left over ten minutes late and now he was shooting down the streets above the speed limit! They were going to get caught and then they would be even later. Steve kept his jaw clamped so he didn't bite Tony's head off in frustration. He was anxious enough as it was. And then Tony went and made it worse.

"What if the kid is really annoying! I don't want to live with a kid like that. Or maybe his sense if hygiene is worse than mine. Do you think Pepper would kick him out? Maybe he won't like you, or he's gay – which would be fine by me – but how would you react when he brought his boyfriend to the tower?"

Tony went on and on and on. Steve had to use all his will power not to thump the man. Finally, as if someone above was smiling at them, they made it to the children's home only five minutes late. Steve ordered Tony to stay in the car and glared when the scientist looked like he wanted to protest. He didn't in the end.

Steve ran into the building and was met by a slightly round woman in a purple shirt and a pair of jeans. She was smiling but she looked exhausted, Steve guessed that's what lots of kids did to you.

"Good morning ma'am. I'm here to meet Peter Parker, sorry I'm late, my driver decided to take his time getting ready." Steve announced formally as he stuck his hand out. The woman eyed him cautiously.

"I was informed that Parker would be taken in by his great grandfather." The woman said sceptically.

"My name is Steve Rogers, you may know me as Captain America. I was frozen for the last sixty five years." Steve clarified. The woman went bright red, she had heard of Captain America and she had just doubted him. This was embarrassing.

"I am so sorry. My na – name is Nancy. I am t – the parent on dut – duty at the moment. Please follow me." Nancy stuttered before quickly leading the way feeling like a fool.

Steve let out a small smile. It made him laugh how some people thought he was above them just because of who he was.

They were heading towards a door at the end of a corridor when Nancy stopped.

"I just need you to fill something out before you go in." Nancy said before handing him a clipboard. Steve hadn't heard. The blood was pumping through his ears and deafening him he was so scared. He kept walking to the door.

"Mr Rogers?" Nancy said.

Steve didn't hear her.

"Mr Rogers, stop!" She said raising her voice. Steve had grabbed the door knob.

"I need you to fill out a few details before you can go in there." Nancy said. Steve looked at his hand clasping the door handle before letting go and heading towards Nancy and her clipboard. Peter Parker sat on the other side of that door, all he had to do was walk in.

"Just write your address, contact details and filled out any other questions." Nancy said.

Peter heard as the person on the other side of the door let go of the handle. Was this person having second doubts?! Peter could hear Nancy's voice on the other side of the door and then nothing. Had his only living family gone? What was happening? Peter was so scared. The analogue clock in the room ticked loudly as if taunting Peter.

Steve had finally finished answering the questions. It had taken him over a minute to find out what his number was. Tech these days was so complicated. He had no idea how to work his phone. Nancy finally stepped in and assisted him.

One question had been: _What will you do if the child starts annoying you or you lose your temper?_

Steve read and reread the question, where they asking if he would hit the boy?

He responded honestly.

_Depending on the severity of the situation, I will restrict his use of technology and his social life until I deem fit. I will also help him understand the consequences of doing ill to himself and/or those around him._

Steve then signed off and went back to the door. He handed the clipboard to Nancy and took the door handle once more before swinging the door open and holding his breath.


	6. Chapter 6

The door creaked open, both man and teen held their breaths as Steve walked into the room. Steve stood in the doorway staring at the back of the boy in the chair who seemed tense as he stared at the wall in front of him. The boy had messy brown hair and a navy blue t-shirt on. Steve had forgotten how to move. Finally, after what seemed like hours but was more like seconds, Steve moved forward. He moved to the other side the table and sat down. He and the boy stared at each other although Peter looked more confusion thinking someone was playing a sick joke and then his expression changed to complete awe.

They sat there staring.

"H – hi." Steve stammered. Beating Red Skull was easier then this!

"Hi." Peter mumbled back. It seemed like the silence came crashing down. The ice had cracked slightly. Steve gave a small smile and Peter sent one back.

"So, I'm Steve, um, your great grandfather." Steve announced awkwardly. Peter laughed a little, Steve wondered what he was laughing about and then he figured it out.

"That's going to be hard getting used to. You look like you could be no more than ten years older than me!" Peter smiled. It didn't reach his eyes but it was an improvement to staring. Steve full out laughed. It was true. He was a great grandfather and everyone would just think they were brothers, father and son if you stretched the idea

Once they sat in silence again, Steve noticed something strange about meeting the kid.

"You don't seem surprised that I'm only a few years older then you. I'm guessing you know who I am."

"Yeah, you're Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America and you were unfrozen two years ago." Peter recited.

"Most people don't know who Steve is, they just know the Captain." Steve pointed out. Peter blushed slightly making Steve even more curious.

"I – I read about Doctor Erskine's experiment to make you a super soldier. I sounded painful." Peter explained. Steve nodded.

"You must know your science. I was told the ingredients they were going to use, the process and what the result would be." Steve explained and then he laughed, "All that science went straight over my head! I was strapped onto this table and then Erskine injected me with something and I said 'that wasn't so bad'. It was the penicillin. I can't say it did much to stop the pain."

"Just imagine what it would have been like without the penicillin." Peter pointed out and Steve gave a nod, that was true.

"So you understood the sciency stuff in the super soldier experiment then?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, I like science. Most people hate chemistry but I find it fascinating." Peter mumbled like he was embarrassed.

"There's nothing wrong with enjoying your hobby. Who are your favourite scientists? By the way, I probably won't know any of them, just a forewarning." Steve said.

"Actually, I think you'll know them. My four favourite scientists in no particular order are Albert Einstein, Erskine, Bruce Banner and Tony Stark." Peter announced brightly. Steve groaned. Peter looked like he said something wrong and almost retracted into his mumbling, quiet shell.

"Whatever you do, please do not mention that to Tony when you meet him." Steve announced and then explained, "I'll never hear the end of it!"

Peter looked surprised; Steve got the wrong impression so he kept talking.

"I live at the Avengers Tower, previously the Stark Tower and Stark is waiting outside. He'll tease me relentless if he finds out that my relative, no matter how close or distant, is a fan."

"You – you _want _me to live with you?" Peter asked dumbfounded. He knew he was meeting a distant relative but when he found out that relative was Captain America, he was positive the man didn't have any intentions of claiming guardianship. Steve looked just as shocked. Why would Peter think that he didn't want him? Would he really drive all the way here just to say he wasn't taking Peter?

"Yes." Steve said plainly, still shocked. "Why wouldn't I?"

"I just – I just – I don't know, why would you want me?" Peter asked. It was such as simple question yet so difficult to answer. Peter kept talking. "Surely you've heard of the history of my – our family. Everyone dies early. It's cursed."

Steve looked even more shocked. Was Peter saying he felt cursed?

"You're still here and I'm still breathing. We're made of sterner stuff. We need to stick together." Steve reassured. Peter still looked sceptical but dropped it.

"So," Steve said breaking the awkwardness, "you were telling me about your favourite scientists."

Peter nodded slowly before continuing. He explained how he was fascinated by Einstein and Erskine. He then explained how Bruce Banners research into gamma radiation was what first interested him in that area of science. It was clear that neither had forgotten the previous conversation.

"Why Stark then?" Steve asked.

"I know that Mr Stark only drabbles in science and those kinds of experiments but his research in mechanics and the relations between science and mechanics is fascinating." Peter explained. Steve nodded and listened as Peter talked on, he was really enjoying listening to the boy, his own blood. Ten minutes later, Steve was telling Peter about his great grandma when there was a knock on the door. They both looked towards the door and Nancy walked in.

"I hope you are now well acquainted. Will you be moving in together today?" Nancy asked. Both boys looked confused.

"I thought I had to go through tests to check whether I was legible to look after Peter?" Steve asked.

"That's all been dealt with." She brushed off. It was easy to see she was just as confused about that matter but had to let it slide. Steve guessed this had something to do with Fury, he would thank the man later.

"So?" Nancy promoted. Peter looked at Steve for guidance. Steve could tell the boy was still scared that Steve was going to leave him so Steve shrugged his shoulder and looked Peter straight in the eyes.

"I will only take Peter if he wants to come with me." He said. Peter gawped before closing his mouth and staring back at Steve.

"Y – Yes please." He stuttered. Steve broke into a wide smile which Peter reflected. Nancy smiled and then led the way to Peter's room so they could gather his things. Steve offered to take two of the boxes while Peter dug under his bed to grab his skateboard.

"You know," Steve said as Peter started emerging from under the bed, "Coming to live with me means you get to meet two of your favourite scientists."

Peter bumped his head as he lifted his head which was still under the bed. He rubbed it in pain before turning to smirk at Steve.

"Are you bribing me?" He grinned. Steve grinned back.

"I might but you already agreed to live with me so I don't need to." Steve pointed out. Peter mockingly glared at Steve before he remembered who he was talking to and shuffled to his bed to grab Uncle Ben's shoulder bag ensuring his letter was hidden in the bag. Steve sighed, it was going to take a while for them both to get used to this.

Finally, Steve followed Peter down the stairs where he said goodbye to a few people, got a fist bump from Vince and got hugged by Nancy. Steve then led the way to Tony's bright red Mercedes. He asked for Tony to drive something less conspicuous but upon seeing the options, this was the best one. Tony wasn't paying attention when they got there but when Steve opened the boot he spun around. Peter stood close to Steve, already slightly attached, and put his box and skateboard into the car. Once they had put everything away, Steve got in the seat next to Tony while Peter climbed into the back behind Tony's chair. Tony spun around and held a hand out awkwardly to the backseat for Peter to shake.

"Hi, I'm Tony Stark, you must be Peter." Tony greeted. Steve was surprised that Tony was being so civil – so, normal?

"Hi." Peter responded shyly as he took the hand. He mentally hit himself. He had never been this shy before. Why now?

"So, Petey," Tony said as he started driving, "what's capsicle told you about me?"

Peter glanced at Steve who looked back at Peter with a small smirk so Peter decided he was allowed to have some fun.

"Well, sir, he's told me you're obnoxious, annoying and full of yourself." Peter said in an offhanded tone. That was what he had gathered from Steve protesting about telling Tony he was a popular scientist.

Tony spluttered indignantly while Steve burst out laughing. Tony then glared at Steve with one eye while trying to pay attention to the road.

"I thought we were in a good place, Rogers!" Tony burst out in mock hurt.

"The kid's easy to talk to, honest feelings just came out." Steve quipped.

The rest of the journey was done with banter and mostly Tony trying to get Peter to talk more. Peter answered most questions but mostly he kept quiet. He was looking forwards to his new life, even though he missed his old one.

**Did I do justice to the meeting scene? Please tell me, I'm biting my fingers I'm so nervous!**


	7. Chapter 7

"So," Tony said as he drove into the underground car park. "want to meet the team? Or at least, whoever's staying with us?"

Peter wasn't paying attention. _He was under the Stark Tower!_

"Pete?" Tony said looking behind him. No response. Steve turned and saw the awe in Peter's eyes. Even in the car park, Peter was taking in every detail.

"Peter." Steve said. Peter's head snapped towards the Captain. "Do you want to meet Bruce Banner and Pepper Potts or would you rather unpack?"

Peter looked almost guilty when he considered his choices. Tony finally parked the car and both men had turned in their seats to look at the teen.

"Do you mind if I unpack first?" Peter asked nervously. He really did want to meet Bruce Banner, and Tony had nattered away about Pepper so he wouldn't mind meeting her but his head was still spinning. In less than an hour his life had changed drastically. He had found out his only living relative was Captain America. He was currently underneath and going to be living in one of the only buildings he would ever die to see. He had met Tony Stark and was going to meet Bruce Banner before the day was up. It was crazy! And here he thought being Spiderman was as weird as it got.

"Don't look so nervous kid!" Tony criticised. The man then got out the car and opened the car's boot before hauling one of the three boxes out of the car. Steve grabbed the other two leaving Peter to feel rather lost on what to do with his empty hands. Instead, he slung his bag over his shoulder and carried his skateboard in two hands to make him feel like he was being helpful. They stepped into a large elevator. Tony showed his mirth at Peter's gawping expression all over his face. Steve just gave an encouraging smile. He knew this was all weird and new but the shock on Peter's face was still amusing. Peter couldn't help it. He had to comment.

"I didn't know lifts came in this size!" he exclaimed. Tony wanted to boast or explain but decided to give Peter another shock.

"Jarvis, floor seven." Tony said to the closing door. Steve rolled his eyes; he knew Tony was just showing off. The arrogance was loud and clear in his voice.

"Of course, sir." A voice rang through the large lift. Peter jumped out of his skin.

"Oh yeah," Tony practically boasted, "That's my AI, Jarvis. If you need anything, just ask him."

Peter's jaw dropped further.

"You have an AI? Is he rigged throughout the building? And if so, is he on in the bathroom?" Peter asked. The last question was asked sceptically as Peter looked at Tony.

The door pinged and Tony and Steve lead the way out.

"Yes I do have an AI, he is rigged in every room, including the bathroom but there is only recording equipment in the living rooms. That means that Jarvis can tell you if someone is asking for you while you're in the shower and you can reply but no one can hack in and listen to you singing in the shower. Same with the bedroom. Are you interested in science?" Tony asked.

"I'm top of my class in science. I've always enjoyed it." Peter said modestly. Steve eyed him as if to remember their conversation earlier. Peter could believe that Tony would annoy Steve forever if he found out that he was one of the people Peter idolised.

"Great! Another science buddy!" Tony exclaimed. "We have a four science floors, 13-17. Feel free to drop in anytime. We have loads of toys!"

"Is there a reason they're on the top floor?" Peter asked, he knew there had to be a reason.

"Yeah, things like to go boom so might as well put them near the top where it's least likely to topple the building over." Tony explained.

"You must have strong curtains or blinds upstairs then, I mean, if the sun is glaring in, surely that can either cause a reaction or disturb the results by an increase in temperature." Peter pointed out.

Tony started explaining the quality and the material of the blinds and Steve tuned out. This was way above his science knowledge. He knew that adding heat can sometimes cause a reaction but that was about it. Then they started mentioning chemical names and Steve decided it was pointless even trying to listen in.

"Anyway," Tony concluded, "we can continue this once you're settled in. I think gramps is having a brain melt down with all this sciencey stuff."

Tony grinned and Peter looked over to his great grandpa. He had this glazed look in his eyes. He came back into focus when he noticed they had stopped talking.

"Have a nice daydream?" Tony taunted as he called for the lift.

"Very funny Stark." Steve muttered.

"Anyway, see you later." Tony said before stepping into the lift and waving at Peter followed by a mock salute to Steve. Steve just rolled his eyes and waited for the lift doors to slide shut leaving Peter and Steve in an awkward silence.

"So..." Peter started. Steve then realised he was supposed to actually _do _something.

"Oh, yes. We have this floor to ourselves. It's supposed to be one floor per person but Tony didn't plan to have you here." Steve said. He then noticed that he had made Peter a little uncomfortable so he rushed to correct himself. "To be honest, I don't want a floor to myself. I've spent one night here and it's too quiet and large. It needs more people."

He gave Peter a small smile which Peter returned.

Steve then took Peter on a tour of the floor. It was amazing! Peter listened as Steve and his very limited knowledge of technology tried to explain where things were and how they worked. With seconds Peter knew how to use the TV and even had Steve accessing the most basic channels.

Steve then showed Peter his room, gave him a towel and expressed that he could cover the walls in anything he wanted. Steve then left the room to Peter and his three boxes.

Peter slouched on his bed testing the springs. Steve seemed nice, if a little robotic. Tony was eccentric, if a little crazy and Peter was fine with it all, if a little home sick.

Peter lay down for over five minutes just staring at the ceiling. This was a lot to take in, it was starting to hurt his head. Not only that but his thoughts started to wander. He had been off school all week since he had been too emotionally ill to go. Was he supposed to go in on Monday? Would he still attend Midtown? And what about Gwen? How did he tell her _any_ of this? Question after question presented itself to Peter but one stuck out more prominently than any other: what happens to Spiderman?

Of course Peter would never consider giving up as Spidey but was Spidey on holiday/temporarily leave and about to resume work as normal or extend his break?

And did he tell Steve? Peter had this nagging feeling that he didn't want to yet. Peter groaned before deciding to distract himself. He rolled over and started unpacking his clothes into his wardrobe and draws. He looked out of the window in his room and was shocked how high up he was. If he had been afraid of heights he would be a crumpled mess on the floor. Even though he wasn't it still gave him the butterfly feeling in his stomach, especially because he didn't have his web shooters attached to his wrists.

His equipment!

Peter ran over to the box he had just emptied and saw his dad's brief case as well as his box with his costume and other essentials to his vigilante life.

"Hey Jarvis." Peter called out feeling really stupid.

"Yes sir?" a voice responded. Peter wasn't sure where to look, it felt like it was surround sound so it sounded like it came from left, right and centre.

"Is there anywhere to hide anything in this room?" Peter questioned cautiously. He was afraid that Tony would find out he had asked that and then would come snooping.

"Mr Stark has included a small hiding space behind the left bedside table." Jarvis responded.

"Will Mr Stark know I've asked you this or that I've put something inside the hiding space?"

"If you ask directly, I won't tell him you asked in case he asks a question. He will not know that you've put something in there unless you tell him or he inspects it which is unlikely." Jarvis explained.

"Then, don't tell Stark I asked for a hiding place and warn me if he is about to check my safe." Peter ordered. It still felt strange having a conversation with thin air, then again, not many could say that the air responded. Even then, in most cases you should get that checked out.

Peter ran to what he presumed was the left side and moved the table out of the way. He tapped the wall but nothing happened. Since Peter had never had a double bed before he didn't know how the left and right side worked with beds. Peter vaulted over the bed and onto the other side. He moved the small table, careful not to knock the light or radio off and noticed a square panel that was almost as high as the bed with the mattress on top and equally wide. Peter pushed on the right side of the square and there was a soft click as it slowly swung open. Inside was a vault with a scanner on the front and a handle. Since Peter hadn't done anything to create an entrance lock, he pulled on the vault door and it heaved open. The vault was a cube. It could easily fit the tatty briefcase and the box. Peter was about to shove his items in when he noticed a piece of paper on the floor of the vault. It was instructions to set the eye scanner. Peter read them through carefully before taking action. He lay flat on his stomach and activated the scanner so it knew to scan him to set the lock. Once he was sure he hadn't screwed up, Peter shut the vault and covered it up again before checking his other boxes. Once everything was in a decent place, Peter looked around.

He owned a floor with Captain America and was currently living at the St – Avengers Tower (Tony had corrected him) with complete access to Stark equipment and resources. Just think what he could do to his web shooters!

Once Peter was done he walked out of his room and into the living space he shared with Steve. Steve wasn't there so he knocked on Steve's door. There was no answer.

"Jarvis," Peter called out. "Where is everyone?"

"They are all on the communal floor on floor five." Jarvis announced. Peter thanked the AI and then called the lift.

Once Steve had left Peter's room, he stood in the living room wondering what to do. He was contemplating reading or going to the gym, maybe hit a few punch bags. Steve decided that the latter idea was the way to go so he headed to his room to get changed. Just as he took off his shirt Jarvis's voice spoke clearly in the room.

"Mr Stark wishes to speak with you on floor five." Jarvis announced.

Steve sighed before putting his shirt back on and calling the lift. Once he got down there he saw Bruce and Tony lounging on the couch.

"Capsicle, come and join us!" Tony shouted raising his glass. Steve wasn't sure what alcoholic beverage was in it but he knew it was too early to be drinking.

"Are you sure you should be drinking before lunch?" Steve sighed as he walked over.

"Nonsense. I'm sure some people consider having lunch at around eleven!" Tony argued.

Bruce stared at Steve with eyes that begged him to just leave it be. Steve gave Bruce a small nod and sat down.

"You called." Steve announced as he sunk into the white leather chair.

"Is there anything wrong with wanting a chat?" Tony asked innocently.

Bruce looked over at Steve.

"So, what's Peter like?" he asked.

"He's a really nice kid." Steve said. He was about to say more when Tony butted in.

"He likes science!" Tony cried.

"I know, Tony. You've mentioned it a few times." Bruce sighed.

"Yeah, but a relative of Cap's is good at science." Tony said like it explained everything.

"Anyway, he's a nice kid. He's a little quiet but I look forwards to getting to know him." Steve told Bruce.

"Quiet? He barely spoke on the journey home!" Tony butted in again.

"I think he's just in shock. It's one thing to hear you have a relative who's still alive after everyone you know has died and it's a whole other thing to find out that relative is Captain America." Bruce theorised. Steve nodded in agreement.

"Or," Tony exaggerated, "he was just in awe of my presence. I mean, he likes science so he probably thinks I'm awesome. What would you do if he looked up to me more then you?"

Steve groaned. Tony could sometimes be obnoxious but he was only this bad if he had drunken too much. That appeared to be the case. Tony took another swig of his drink only to find that there wasn't even a drip left. He stood up and walked towards the bar which had shelves of colourful liquids.

"I think that's enough." Steve stated firmly. The authority in Steve's voice made Tony pause.

"And why is that?" Tony asked dramatically spinning around.

"We now have a minor in the house." Steve stated. Tony didn't look convinced and was about to add to his alcohol intake when Steve continued. "If he does look up to you as you claim, what is he going to think when his idol is rat-arsed? How's he going to react when he finds out the man who he spent years idolising is not as he expected but a drunk?"

Bruce was surprised with the forcefulness in the Captain's voice but waited for Tony to react. He could do anything when he was drunk.

"Are you admitting that your great grandson idolises me?" Tony asked delighted. Although he would never admit it, what Steve had said go to him. That was seen when he put his glass on the bar counter and walked back to the sofa.

"I only said _if_." Steve corrected.

Tony raised an eyebrow, not believing him for a second but he dropped it. The three men sat in silence for a moment.

"So does he idolise me?" Tony asked. He might have dropped the subject but he was bored. Steve held in a grown and he could see that Bruce was trying to as well.

"Why is it so important?" Bruce asked.

"Because I want to know!" Tony moaned and then stared intently at Steve. "It also means that I'll have a fan in the building and have to pull my act together."

Steve sat there in a dilemma. He could tell Tony the truth and be taunted endlessly. This option would improve Tony's health and not ruin Peter's childhood image of an idol. Or he could lie and expose Peter to a drunk man and destroy his childish fantasies. Steve had been raised by a mother and occasionally experienced the temper and odour of his drunken father*. He didn't want Peter to have to have a similar experience.

"You're his fourth favourite." Steve said staring at Tony straight in the eyes. Tony spluttered.

"Fourth! Only fourth?!" Tony complained. "Who's before me?"

"Well, there's Erskine and that other scientist from around World War 2 beginning with E... What was it?" Steve mumbled.

"Einstein?" Bruce supplied helpfully.

"That's the one." Steve confirmed. He left one out just begging for Tony to ask.

"Who was the other one?" Tony asked indignantly.

"Oh, that's Dr Banner here." Steve said innocently. Tony was lost for words.

Just as he was about to come up with comeback the elevator doors slid open and out stepped Peter.

Tony was going red. He was unbelievably drunk, more so then Steve had ever seen him before, and now he was outraged. Steve looked between his friend and his great grandson. Something could go horribly wrong...

***Captain America comics in dimension Z**

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	8. Chapter 8

**For those wondering, Erskine was the man in ****_Captain America: First Avenger_**** who came up with the super serum.**

Peter stood in the elevator nervously. He still didn't know what to do. What did he do now? What was he supposed to do with life, I mean, it's not every day this sort of thing happens. Finally the lift reached the fifth floor. The doors slid open and Peter stepped out. The scene in front of him shocked him. Captain America had a grin sliding off his face once he saw Peter sitting on a white leather sofa. Tony was red faced, standing in front of Steve with his glare moving from the super soldier onto Peter. And then there was Bruce Banner, Peter's main idol. He sat there comfily on the sofa grinning at Steve and Tony for some reason. Like the others, his gaze moved off of his friends and onto the teen with his expression changing to uncertainty. Peter stood there nervously with everyone staring at him. The elevator doors slid shut behind Peter.

"Have I done something wrong?" Peter asked cautiously while his mind raced with all the things he could have done. Tony started to storm towards Peter with his face becoming an even brighter shade of red. Steve sprung up with worry clouding his face. Bruce cautiously went onto his feet. Peter just became slightly scared. Just as Tony was about to reach Peter he tripped on a small coffee table next to one of the sofas and ended up ungraciously sprawled on the floor looking like he might cry.

Steve strode over to Tony to help him up but the man brushed him away and lay there looking up at Peter who was still trying to figure out what was going on.

"I'm your FOURTH FAVOURITE?!" Tony whined. Peter looked questioningly at the soldier who let out a small smirk. Peter was so confused.

"Sorry what?" He questioned.

"I'm your fourth favourite scientist! Why? I'm the coolest there is _and _I'm a superhero!" Tony whinged. "I want to be your favourite!"

Peter was in shock. What the hell was going on?!

"You prefer Bruce to me! I wanna be the coolest! I am the coolest!" Tony cried wriggling with frustration on the floor.

"Um..." Peter replied.

"I thought." Tony started trying to stand up in his drunken stupor, "I thought we had something special."

Tony started walking towards Peter. Steve, knowing how unpredictable drunk people could be, followed cautiously, ready to spring into action if Tony raised a hand. Bruce stood there trying to think whether to laugh or tell Tony to calm down.

"WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?" Tony screamed as he walked circles around Peter. Peter flinched into himself. This was really scaring him. Steve went to grab Tony to put a stop to all of this. He was making the poor boy nerous.

"ANTHONY STARK!" A voice cried from the elevator. All the men (and teen) looked over to the source of the voice and there stood Pepper Potts glaring at Tony. With Tony's tantrum, no one had heard the elevator.

"Hey Pepper." Tony mumbled. Steve could see the anger vanishing replaced by a little bit of fear, just a little.

"How _dare_ you get drunk like this! How _dare _you scare our guest! Shame on you!" Pepper screeched storming forwards and slapping Tony on the face leaving an echoing crack to fill all of their ears and a bright red mark on Tony's face. It definitely knocked some sense and soberness into the poor man.

"Ow, Pep!" Tony grumbled.

"It serves you right!" Pepper huffed before turning and smiling at Peter. "Hi, I'm Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark industries and ex-girlfriend to Tony Stark." Pepper greeted sticking her hand out.

It took Peter a moment to come out of his shocked stupor.

"H- Hi." Peter said gripping her hand. Bruce had a large smile on his face and slumped back in his seat. Steve, seeing everything was taken care of, went back to his seat.

"Wait, what?!" Tony exclaimed.

Pepper turned back to Tony schooling her expressions.

"Yes?" she questioned calmly.

"What do you mean _ex_-girlfriend?!" Tony cried.

Peter looked between the arguing couple and realised he was standing right in the middle of their little war. He looked around the room pleadingly for something to save him. Steve caught his eye and made a small gesture signalling him over. Peter willingly took this escape and sat next to Captain America and Bruce Banner.

"Don't worry." Bruce whispered as he saw Peter eying Pepper and Tony nervously. "They're always fighting. They'll have made up by tonight."

Bruce had only whispered loud enough for Peter to hear and Steve's super hearing to pick up. Steve watched in amusement.

"It's going to stay that way until you either sober up or learn not to scare kids!" Pepper retorted. Peter was quite lost about what was going on in the conversation now.

"By the way, I'm Bruce Banner." Bruce greeted at normal volume taking Peter's attention from all of the shouting.

Peter turned and gaped finally realising who was talking to him.

"Doctor Banner, I'm a big fan!" Peter exclaimed, now completely distracted from the argument just metres away from him.

"I've heard." Bruce grinned. Peter looked at him dumbfounded before realising what had happened. He stared wide eyed at Steve.

"I thought you said not to tell anyone or Tony will annoy you?" Peter said curiously.

"True, but the idea of annoying Stark was too good to miss." Steve admitted.

"So that's what Tony's weird antics were about?" Peter asked for confirmation.

"Yes." Bruce said. "Is Tony really your fourth favourite scientist?"

"What? No, I said no particular order." Peter tried to correct.

"But I conveniently left that bit out." Steve added with a small laugh. Bruce chuckled.

"Well, I'm honoured to find someone interested in my work." Bruce said honestly.

"Oh yeah, I was fascinated by your latest study into gamma radiation." Peter enthused.

"Wait, you understood that? I haven't decoded most of the scientific language yet." Bruce replied slightly shocked. Peter blushed a little.

"I like science a lot." He admitted.

Just then Peter and Steve felt droplets of cold water crash onto their arms. Everyone looked up and saw Pepper standing there with an empty champagne bucket. You could see how cold the metal had been by the droplets on the outside and the ice on the floor. Tony was covered in ice cold water from head to toe. Pepper looked at Tony with an innocent smile.

"Are you sober now, sweetie?" Pepper asked. Tony nodded and Pepper stormed off.

Tony waddled back over to the sofa before squelching onto the leather sofa opposite Steve, Bruce and Peter.

"That woman is scary." Tony said quietly.

"You did sort of ask for it by getting this drunk." Bruce said.

Tony wanted to glare at Bruce but he knew it was true.

"Sorry about that, kid." Tony said. He sighed. "It shouldn't matter who your favourite scientist is."

Steve grinned before looking at his companions and then back to Tony.

"Peter never admitted to you being fourth. He said no particular order." Steve admitted.

Tony sat there starring dumbfounded.

"Wait," he said slowly, "You actually lied. As in, you told a lie?!"

Peter was so confused. Steve had just admitted that Tony wasn't his fourth favourite scientist but all he picked up was the fact that Steve had lied.

"No, I just altered the truth." Steve said simply.

"But you didn't tell the full truth!" Tony pointed out.

"I am able to lie you know." Steve said.

"You, my dear boy scout, never lie." Tony butted in.

"Wait, what's going on?" Peter asked. He may be shocked who he was in a room with but he was getting used to the idea that they were all human (if a little modified) and they had normal conversation.

"Your dear great uncle-"

"Grandfather." Steve corrected

"Never lies. He says everything truthfully and is annoyingly honest. He just lied – altered the truth – whatever you want to say." Tony finished.

"I can lie, I am human you know. I just don't lie normally, I believe you should barely ever lie, if ever." Steve explained.

"No, you're a robot with a stick up your arse, a sort of nice robot on occasion but I wouldn't count you as human." Tony snorted. Peter grinned, these people were the world's mightiest heroes?

"I have just not moulded into modern times." Steve said exasperated. Peter could tell this was a recurring conversation.

"You should see him do sarcasm. He's still learning but it's hilarious." Tony laughed. Bruce snickered. Peter guessed there was a tale behind this but decided to not get into it. There was silence for a moment and Tony looked between Steve and Peter. They had about a foots distance between them and seemed tense. They had no idea how to act.

"So, what's great grandpapi going to be called then?" Tony asked. Peter and Steve looked at each other nervously although it was much harder to tell with the super soldier, he was better at controlling his emotions.

"Unless Peter actually wants to call me something different, I think Steve will suffice." Steve said neutrally.

"Yeah that works." Peter said. "It'd be too weird to even call you gramps."

Tony smirked. Bruce laughed and Steve just smiled and nodded.

"I may be in my eighties theoretically but I don't feel old enough to even be called dad." Steve joked.

Tony wiped some cold water from his eyes before realising that an awkward silence had settled in the room again.

"So, I hear you're a fan of Bruce's and my work." Tony said. Bruce rolled his eyes. Tony just had to keep talking.

"Yeah, Doctor Banner's research is one of the things that got me into science. And your work with mechanics is fascinating, Mister Stark." Peter said rubbing the back of his arm awkwardly.

"You can call me Bruce by the way." Bruce said with a smile. "And Tony will bite your head off if you call him Mister Stark."

"It was my father name, it makes me feel old." Tony retorted.

"I'll try and remember that." Peter grinned.

He stayed with the three heroes until dinner and then they stayed up talking about nothing of any relevance until ten when Peter called it a night and headed to bed. Once Peter got upstairs he changed into his pyjamas and curled under his blanket. Today had been a good day. With that thought, he drifted off to sleep which consisted of no nightmares, only blissful darkness.

**To those hoping to have Pepper tell Tony off, I was already planning it, scary, you read my mind.**

**I didn't screw up this chapter up did I?** **Please tell me, your opinions and views are incredibly important to the success of this story. To those supporting this story already thank you for your support, keep supporting it!**


	9. Chapter 9

Peter awoke that Saturday morning at around ten am. It was the latest he had slept in for a very long while, either because of nightmares, being out as Spiderman or because of losing his Aunt May.

Peter stretched and then went to the shared bathroom to have a shower. He undressed and let the warm water wash the remaining tendrils of sleep away. Peter then got out of the shower and wrapped his towel around his waist so he could deal with the other stuff that came with his morning routine. That included staring in the mirror while brushing his teeth. He then caught sight of one of his scars running across his chest. Lizard had given it to him. This made Peter think back to what his great grandfather said yesterday.

_"I can lie, I am human you know. I just don't lie normally, I believe you should barely ever lie, if ever."_

Was Peter lying when he wasn't telling them his secret? Peter stared at the scar as if it held all the answers. He had never told his aunt yet he felt happy when he knew that she actually knew. He was brought out of his daze when a blob of mint toothpaste fell from his slightly open mouth and rolled down his chest. Peter quickly rubbed it off before spitting out the contents of his mouth and washing his face. He was careful to check that Steve wasn't in the living room before sneaking back into his own room. He had forgotten to bring any clothes in.

As Peter picked up the clothes he was going to wear, his spidey sense tingled and he moved his foot out the way as his phone thumped onto the floor. Thankfully the phone was pretty indestructible so it didn't have any scratches on it. Peter realised he hadn't even looked at it since last Saturday. The battery was dead so Peter put it on charge and left for breakfast.

Bruce was sitting with his newspaper on the kitchen counter reading about a section in politics. He looked up when he saw Peter enter.

"Good morning." He said with a small nod.

"Morning." Peter yawned.

"And how are we this fine morning?" Bruce asked.

"Good, tired but good. Where is everyone?" Peter said looking around.

"Well, I don't think Tony went to bed. I think he's trying to find a way to get Pepper to forgive him so he's locked up in his lab. That, or he's starting a new suit. As for Steve, I think he's gone for a run. He normally does a work out in the morning and if there's nothing to do he goes on a run or wanders around. He might be trying to immerse himself in modern technology but I doubt it." Bruce said.

Peter nodded, accepting the explanations he was given and started hunting for breakfast. He found coco pops and milk, memorising what each cupboard held for later reference. Bruce pointed out where to get a spoon and bowl and then Peter joined Bruce at the table. They sat in a comfortable silence until Peter finished when Bruce directed him to the dishwasher. As Peter was loading his plate someone entered the room.

"Think fast!" they shouted. Peter's Spider sense warned him of an incoming object within a second and Peter spun around skilfully and caught the offending object. He saw Tony with his arm outstretched looking more shocked by the millisecond and Bruce looking confused. For good measure, Peter then tripped over to make it look like he had no skill and it was all accidental. He only wished his falling skills were as good as his catching skills because his hip hit the open dishwasher door just before he landed. His side throbbed and he took a moment before climbing steadily back to his feet.

Bruce had a look of concern on his face and Tony was laughing.

"For a moment I thought you had some skill!" Tony laughed.

"No, just accurate timing and two left feet." Peter said hoping he sounded believable. He noticed how raspy his voice was. He had the air knocked out of him as he hit the floor. Bruce stood up from the granite table and cushioned dinning chair.

"Are you alright?" he asked walking towards Peter. Peter brushed him off.

"I'm fine." He grunted.

"That did not sound fine." Bruce pointed out.

"Kid, capsicle will kill us if something happened to you." Tony said as his laughter subsided.

"Seriously," Peter said standing up and ignoring the pain, "it's not that bad, the most I'll have is a bruise."

Bruce eyed him wearily before turning back to his chair. Tony shrugged and walked over to the coffee machine. Peter was about to go upstairs, he wasn't sure what he'd do but if it got him out of this awkward situation, he could live with boredom. Just as he was reaching out to call for the lift, Jarvis's voice called through the room.

"Sir, a police officer is here wishing to speak to Mister Parker." Jarvis announced. Bruce and Tony turned to Peter and Peter paled, he wondered what this could be about. Was this about him being Spiderman or if he had done something wrong in the past. Or had something happened to Steve? What could they want?

"Send him up." Tony said, his curiosity was shining openly in his voice.

"Of course, sir." Jarvis said. Peter stepped away from the lift and watched as the lift stopped on the ground floor. It then slowly started making its way up.

Peter moved to the kitchen area, nervous about who would come out. The lift then stopped on the same floor they were on. Peter held his breath as the doors slid open. Out stepped Officer Mark, the officer who had taken him back to his house. He release a bit of the breath he was holding.

"Hi again, Peter." Mark said awkwardly. Peter assumed Mark was a little star struck when he realised that one of the most powerful and rich people in the world was standing right behind Peter.

"Hi, Officer Mark." Peter said with an awkward wave.

"Wait, you two know each other?" Tony asked.

"Yeah," Peter said turning around, "he took me back to my house last week."

Mark nodded to confirm the story.

"That's why I'm here. They were going to send a social worker but I wanted to see how you were getting on. Shall we sit down?" Mark suggested. Tony nodded and lead Peter to the kitchen table , Bruce looked up from his paper and Mark took the only remaining seat.

"Is your guardian here?" Mark asked. He had no idea who Peter's guardian was.

"No, he's out." Peter said, Mark nodded.

"Right, well straight to business. I said that anything you didn't take with you would be put into storage until you were of age." Mark said just to confirm he remembered correctly. Peter nodded silently.

"I'm afraid that's not the case. Your aunt had some debts and outstanding bills. You were very tight for money."

Peter looked down at his hands in shock, he didn't know they were that tight with money. He knew they were being slightly cautious but not as bad as Mark was making it sound.

"They're going to reclaim the house tomorrow and anything left in it to pay the debts." Mark stated staring at Peter. Peter was quiet for a long time.

After a long pause Peter spoke up.

"What do you mean by everything?" Peter asked trying to keep his voice normal.

"Everything and anything in your house will go including the house. I came here to tell you, see if there was anything you wanted to sneak out before it was all gone." Mark said. "Do you want to go back?"

Peter waited for a second and then nodded. Tony interrupted.

"Pete, if you want to keep the house I'll pay off the debts!" Tony exclaimed.

Peter looked up at Tony curiously.

"You've only just met me and you're willing to throw money at me?" Peter asked dumbfounded. He had never lived in a rich household, he could understand helping someone with a glass of water, spare change, little things to help but pay off large debts for someone you don't know. Peter couldn't understand.

Tony was taken back, Peter had been so blunt, he hadn't expected that response.

"Yeah, but I like you Peter and if you want to keep it you can. I have enough money; this won't even dent my account." Tony answered.

Peter looked like he was considering the offer.

"I can't take your money, mister Sta – Tony." Peter said uncertainly. Bruce was trying to think of what Peter might be thinking, wondering about his thinking pattern while Mark just watched the conversation.

"Peter, money doesn't matter to -"

"No, I don't want your money and I think I need to move on." Peter finalised. Bruce could understand that logic, Mark couldn't believe he was sitting in Tony Stark's house listening to a teenager turning down a billionaire's money and Tony looked Peter straight in the eyes to see if he was being honest. When he saw no other motive behind Peter's logic he nodded and Peter looked at Mark.

"I'll go." Peter said. He had a sudden longing for Steve to be there. He knew that he only met the man the day before but still, he was his family and for some reason that made Peter want his support. As if reading his mind Bruce looked at Peter.

"We'll come with you." He stated.

Tony's head whipped around to look at Bruce. Bruce looked at Tony with a look saying _go along with it_.

"Sure, we'll come." Tony agree, somewhat confusedly.

"Well, that settles it, will you be coming in my car or your own?" Mark asked.

"We'll take the Ferrari." Tony said. Bruce rolled his eyes. Tony loved showing off his wealth. They all stood up and headed out. As the elevator went down Tony passed on a message for Jarvis in case anyone was wondering where they were.

They arrived at Peter's house within half an hour. It looked exactly the same as when they had left last time.

Everyone was quite as Peter entered the house. He was no longer in a day dream/day nightmare and saw everything. Peter walked around the house grabbing things he forgot last time like a spare charger, his ipod, his USB stick with anything important on it. He then stumbled onto the spare cupboard and found a load of picture books. He sat down on the worn green carpet and rested his back against the back of the queen sized bed in the room. He pulled out a blue photo album and a grey one. He scanned through and saw that the blue one had pictures of him, his uncle Ben and his aunt May for the last two years. There were birthday pictures, his aunt and uncle's twentieth wedding anniversary and their twenty-first. Peter had taken their picture. He wanted to photo shop it to perfection but Uncle Ben had said no. He and aunt May wanted it to look just the way it was, it was perfect according to them. He found a picture of Ben trying to stand on his skateboard. Apparently he had been good at these sort of things in his youth... if he had been, he had lost all talents. The picture was slightly blurred because Ben had been trying to stay up right and had been failing.

Peter was about to look through the grey one when he noticed a tattered leather book at the back of the cupboard. Putting the other books aside he clambered over the bits and bobs in the cupboard and grabbed the tattered old book. It had no writing on the front or inclination of who it belonged to but Peter climbed back out with the book in his hand. No matter how thick or heavy, it felt as light as a feather due to his extra strength. Peter smoothed down the tattered remains of the leather front cover and then opened the book. There was a brownish tinted picture of a beautiful woman with darkish hair in formal military attire and smiling. Standing next to her was unmistakably his great grandfather, Steve Rogers standing in his Captain America suit. To Peter's eyes it looked like he hadn't aged a day. That was the only picture on that page. Peter flicked over and found the same woman sitting in a hospital bed with a little baby, underneath it was written _January 20__th__ 1947, Katherine Carter, daughter of Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter was born_. Peter was good at analysing picture and people and, although Peggy as he now knew her, looked unbelievably happy, in the corner of her eye, or maybe her mouth, Peter got the impression that she was sad. Peter then realised why, Steve had been frozen! Their child was born but her father and Peggy's lover weren't there, to them, he was dead. Peter flicked through the next few pages and saw that most of them were Katherine growing up. She looked a lot like her father, Peter noted.

He then got to around the middle of the thick book and saw Katherine with a man. Underneath it said _Katherine Carter's first date with Tom Parker age 16_. The pictures now help both Tom and Katherine in them as well as more with Peggy because someone else could hold the camera. Four pages later there was a large printed picture of a wedding. _Age 19 Katherine and Tom wed_. The following picture shows Katherine getting wider and wider, until it shows her in a hospital bed with a baby, Peggy holding her hand and looking in the camera and Tom kissing Katherine's forehead. Written underneath are the words _Ben Parker born on February 3__rd__ 1966_. Peter keeps flipping the pages and finds the birth of his father, _Richard Parker, born July 20__th__ 1970_. There's a four year old Uncle Ben sitting on the bed next to his mother, Tom's holding the baby and Peggy is stroking Ben's hair. The next ten pages show the kids growing up. Peggy has more grey hairs and wrinkles as the pictures go on but somehow she retains a certain beauty about her even as she becomes frailer. The next significant picture is Aunt May's and Uncle Ben's wedding. Aunt May came into the pictures about a year and a half back if the dates were anything to go by. His dad was best man and his mother wore a light purple dress just like all the other bridesmaids. She looked beautiful. Two pages later, dated 1993 his dad and his mum had their wedding photo and then his mum was in the hospital bed surrounded by her family but there was no Peggy. Underneath it says _Peter Parker, born March 13__th__ 1996_. For the next four pages there are pictures of him and everyone else in family get togethers but Peggy was in none of them. Then in 1999 the pictures stopped. Peter remember being told about that year, he was too young to remember it, it was the year his grandma and grandpa died.

Peter stared at the picture of his parents, his whole family. He heard a knock at the open door and saw Bruce standing there.

"Hey, Peter." He said quietly. "We've been here for an hour, it's time to go."

Peter looked at his watch and was surprised to see how quickly the time had shot by. He still didn't move with the leather book on his lap. Bruce walked over and slid onto the floor next to him. He looked down at the pictures.

"Is this your family?" He asked.

Peter nodded and then flicked to the front of the book where there was a picture of Peggy and Steve. Bruce looked at the picture but couldn't believe his eyes. It was one thing to be told that this teen was the great grandson of a man you truly respect yet he looks younger than you. It's another thing to see this man at the beginning of a photo album that records the progress of the family.

"Come on, we'll take these books with us." Bruce said standing up. He picked up the grey book and the blue book Peter had found earlier while Peter scrounged around and picked up three more to go with the leather book. Bruce was surprised that Peter wasn't struggling with that weight. They looked sort of heavy and his muscle's didn't even seem tensed at all. Bruce brushed it off and lead the way out of the room, shortly followed by Peter who looked at the room one last time and then never turned back.

Once they were back at the house they said goodbye to the officer and then Bruce and Tony helped carry Peter's things to his room. As they stepped in they heard a loud beeping and Peter looked over to his phone. It was his text ringtone. It then beeped again signalling another message. Then it started properly ringing. Peter ran over and picked it up with Bruce and Tony standing clueless in the middle of the room. Peter didn't check caller ID he just picked up. Oh how silly he was. Within a second it was flung onto the bed with shouting erupting out of the speaker. In his desperation to get the phone away from his poor ringing ear he had accidentally pressed loud speaker. Now the voice was shouting at full volume for all to hear.

"PETER PARKER! HOW DARE YOU PICK UP NOW AFTER NOT TALKING TO ME FOR A WEEK. I'VE BEEN WORRIED SICK! FIRST I HEAR THERE WAS A FIRE AT YOUR HOUSE AND THEN YOU'RE NOT PICKING UP OR AT SCHOOL AND NO ONE WILL TELL ME ANYTHING! I THEN FIND OUT YOU'RE ALIVE BUT NOT WHERE YOU'RE LIVING! ARE YOU OK? WHEN YOUR UNCLE DIED YOU CAME INTO SCHOOL ALL BEATEN UP WITH A BLACK EYE, PLEASE TELL ME YOU'VE NOT GONE AND DONE SOMETHING AS STUPID AGAIN?!" The voice screamed. Peter was silent in shock and horror. Bruce looked slightly scared of the phone and Tony looked halfway between laughing and terrified.

"Peter?" the voice questioned when only silence went through the phone.

"H-hi Gwen." Peter stuttered. He stayed routed to the floor and looked at the phone as if it would eat him.

"Oh thank god, you are there." Gwen said. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm good. Sorry for not calling. I didn't realise my battery was gone." Peter said. He still looked scared of the phone.

"You could have at least thought to inform your _girlfriend_ that you were okay! I've been worried sick!" Gwen cried through the phone. Gwen took a deep breath like she was going to go on another rant when laughter erupted through the room. Peter was still in shock from answering the phone, for a moment he wasn't sure what the noise was or where it was coming from. He then looked around and saw Tony holding his sides as he laughed. Even Bruce had a grin on.

"Peter? Who's there? Who are you with? Are you laughing at me, Peter?" Gwen asked over the laughing.

"Gwen, I'm not laughing at you I swear. As for who I'm with, you wouldn't believe me if I told you." Peter said wearily.

"Petey has a girlfriend!" Tony spluttered out between breaths.

"Is that so hard to believe?" Peter muttered. Bruce gave him as sympathetic smile and Tony ignored him.

"And she has the same temper as Pepper!" Tony finished. Peter groaned and then picked up the phone and turned off loud speaker.

"Do you want to meet up and I'll explain everything?" Peter asked over Tony's laughter.

"That sounds like a good idea where should I-"

"I'll meet you at your house in about fifteen minutes." Peter cut off and then hung up. Gwen might be peeved at him for doing that but hopefully she'll forgive him. He then looked at his phone and saw over three hundred texts from Gwen and from a few other people he knew at school. There was also an uncountable amount of missed calls and voice messages from Gwen. Peter just deleted everything in one go. He would explain it all in a moment.

Now he just had to get past Tony and Bruce, but mainly Tony.

This should be fun...

**I'll leave it there for now. Sorry for taking so long to update, I've just been busy. What do you think? Good or crap? **


	10. Chapter 10

Peter stood there staring at Bruce and a grinning Tony. There was silence for a moment longer.

"Look, if you wouldn't mind, you know, moving out the way." Peter said nervously.

"Oohoho wait until Cap hears about this. This will be a great conversation! Well, then again, you two barely talk. I can make this as embarrassing as possible if I want to." Tony pointed out laughing.

Peter just wanted to get away as quickly as possible. He looked at Bruce for support but the man kept his mouth shut.

"What do you want?" Peter practically begged.

"All I want is her full name, picture, address and -" Tony listed off but he was cut off by Bruce. Bruce laughed and then grabbed Tony's arm and dragged him from the doorway.

"See you later Pete." Bruce laughed once the doorway was clear. Peter looked at Bruce and wanted to kiss the man! Well, no he didn't but, he wanted to say thanks. Anyway, Peter spun round and grabbed his phone, skateboard and jacket with his wallet in the pocket before running out of the room. All of this was done before Tony could protest.

"Hey!" Tony Protested. "You're no fun! I just wanted to know if she was pretty!"

"Yeah, like you weren't planning on stalking her anyway." Bruce laughed.

"I was not!" Tony said as though that was an absurd idea. He face then changed to one of innocence and curiosity. "He didn't, by any chance mention her surname did he?"

Bruce laughed and let go of Tony's arm. He then left the room.

Peter got on his skateboard the moment he got out of the Avengers Tower doors. He didn't care that Peter Parker was _supposed _to be a bumbling, stumbling nerd. He used full advantage of his spider sense, dodging any and all obstacles. He used his extra strength to power his legs a little over normal human capability and he sped towards Gwen's apartment. He reached the building within fifteen minutes which should have been impossible but no one needed to know that.

Peter had even completely forgotten the hate that the doorman held for him. He got to the door and the man just glared at him. Peter looked down at his feet as he walked to the elevator. Once the elevator dinged open on Gwen's floor Peter walked over to the door and knocked. He couldn't hear any movement or any sign that someone was inside. Gwen must've been so mad that she tricked him. Maybe if he just waited for another hour or two she would turn up. Wait – no – then she'd think he was a stalker and –

The door opened and there stood Gwen. She had her hair in a messy bun, a plain shirt and jeans on. They stood staring at each other.

"Um, hi." Peter said. Gwen looked like she was about to slap him. Finally, she thought better of it and relaxed.

"Hi, wanna come in?" she offered. Peter walked in and Gwen shut the door before leading the way to her room.

"I think that's one of the very few times you've used my front door." Gwen said breaking the ice. She let out a small smile.

"Yeah, I forgot how intimidating the doorman is!" Peter said honestly. Gwen laughed and Peter looked at her, finally realising how much he missed her.

"Anyway, you owe me an explanation. All I know is your house burnt down and I can't get in touch with anyone." Gwen said turning serious.

"Well, after I left you, I found my house had been burnt down. My aunt was inside." Peter said looking back down. Gwen's face fell and she reached out and grabbed his arm encouragingly.

"I was put into care for a week, not really sure what happened. My phone was dead so I never got any of your messages." Peter continued. He sped up the last explanation. "Then they found a long lost family member and I'm staying with him."

Gwen eyed him critically. She felt sorry for him, she was sad herself, she like May. But Peter was hiding something, why did he speed up at the end? What was he not telling her? Or what was he leaving out?

"Peter." Gwen urged. Peter looked back at her and saw that she wanted more.

"Well, um…"

"Who was laughing in the background?" She encouraged.

"Tony Stark." He said quickly and quietly. Unfortunately, Gwen still caught it. She leaned backwards and eyed him even more critically. That just couldn't be true.

"Peter." Gwen warned. Peter raised his arms in defence but he had a serious expression ruined by a small goofy smile.

"I swear to you, I'm not lying."

"Okay, then who's the long lost relative?"

Peter wasn't sure how to phrase that the idol of America was actually his great grandfather. He decided that honesty probably wouldn't get him slapped although Gwen might find it hard to believe.

"Steve Rogers…" Peter said cautiously, watching Gwen's expression. He saw a flicker of recognition in her eyes but she probably didn't know who that name belonged to.

"What does that have to do with Tony Stark?" Gwen said quizzically. Peter decided to explain a bit more.

"Well, Steve Rogers is sort of Captain America…" Peter said. Okay, he may have been planning to be more detailed but apparently not.

Gwen sat there in silence, dumbfounded. She stared off into space. After a few minutes of silence Peter started fidgeting.

"Gwen?" He questioned quietly. Gwen snapped out of her thoughts.

"You – you said long-g lost relative." She whispered, looking into Peter's eyes for answers.

"Well, my uncle and dad were sons of Katherine Cater. Katherine Carter was daughter to Margret Carter who had been in a relationship with Steve before he disappeared sort of leaving her pregnant." Peter rambled.

"So, he's basically your great grandpa." Gwen summarised.

"In fewer words, yes." Peter confirmed.

"So you're living with Captain America which somehow resulted in Tony Stark being in the same room as you while I was on the phone ranting at you." Gwen summarised.

"And Bruce Banner, you forgot Bruce Banner." Peter corrected causing Gwen to be even more confused. "He was in the room too."

"So Tony Stark and Bruce Banner were listening to my screaming and you didn't tell me? Why were you even with them?" Gwen questioned. Peter could see her becoming angry.

"I didn't tell you who because you wouldn't believe me -" Peter pointed out.

"True." Gwen cut in.

"- and I live with them. Steve has one of the floors so I live on his floor. As for why I didn't interrupted. I was sort of in shock." Peter continued shyly. Gwen stared at him and then burst out laughing.

"You were in shock because of ME?" Gwen laughed.

"Well, yeah, I pick up the phone and it screams at me. You try listening to someone shouting at you when you have super hearing!" Peter pouted. Gwen sat next to Peter and hugged him as one hugs a cute puppy. She was still laughing.

"So, you're terrified of a doorman and scared of your girlfriend?" Gwen questioned rhetorically. Peter huffed but still smiled.

Once Gwen had caught her breath Peter decided to speak again.

"So, we're good?" Peter asked. Gwen leaned on Peter, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah, we're good." Gwen confirmed. "Now, tell me everything. What's it like living with them, where do they even live? What're they like?"

Peter looked down at Gwen, she was actually showing genuine interest. Peter started from the beginning and explained his craziest weekend yet and it wasn't even Sunday!

Tony stood in front of several expanded images that semi circled around him.

"Damn, she is pretty." He said, louder than he thought.

"Tony!" Bruce called warningly.

"Never mind." Tony called back. "Jarvis, delete all pictures of Gwen Stacy from my hard drive and any extra files I may or may not have accessed."

"Of course, sir." Jarvis responded and the images disappeared.

Bruce just rolled his eyes.

**Sorry for the delay, cap and hopefully Spidey in the next chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11

Peter left Gwen's late in the evening, staying just long enough to say hello to Mrs Stacy and the boys. He went out the front entrance, a very rare event. When he arrived back at the Avengers Tower he was greeted by Pepper who had just gotten back from an urgent meeting at Stark Industries. They got in the lift together.

"So, Peter, how's your day been?" Pepper asked, breaking the silence.

"Not bad, and yourself?" Peter replied.

"Stressful, sometime I think those board members are just hired to annoy me!" Pepper huffed with a small smile. She then looked at Peter and started laughing. Peter looked at her quizzically.

"You have some... Um..." Pepper started gesturing to her cheek. Peter was not getting the signals. "Lipstick. Left cheek."

Peter froze and then ferociously rubbed at his cheek with his jumper sleeve. After some vicious rubbing he looked back at a grinning Pepper to confirm that it had gone. Pepper just laughed but nodded a confirmation.

"Please tell me Tony doesn't know about your... Meeting." Pepper said looking at Peter with pleading, sympathetic eyes. Peter huffed and looked sadly back at her to confirm that, in fact, Tony did know about his little escapade. Pepper gave him a very sympathetic look.

"You poor soul." She said sadly. "That red cheek is not going to help your cause. Jarvis, avoid level five, go straight up to Steve's floor, please."

"Yes, ma'am." The robotic voice replied. Peter looked up at Pepper with a new found respect and smiled.

"So, who is this woman then?" Pepper asked cheekily.

"How do you know it's a woman?" Peter asked in a mirrored cheek. Pepper gave Peter a weary look.

"So you're dating a transvestite?" She asked skeptically. "I just don't see it."

Peter grinned.

"I guess the lipstick gave it away." He laughed. Pepper nodded.

"So?" She prompted before adding, "if you don't tell me now, I can just ask Tony and I'm sure he'll be able to tell me all her darkest deeds."

Just as she said that they arrived on Peter and Steve's floor. Pepper and Peter stepped out. Peter looked around before deciding that nothing had been moved or changed. Steve wasn't in then.

"Her names Gwen." Peter started. He felt a bit awkward going into his love life with this woman that he barely knew.

"Oh Peter, I'm just teasing you!" Pepper laughed. "I'm not a stalker like Tony, although, he probably does know every nook and cranny on the girl by now."

"Do you think that Steve will, you know..." Peter trailed off. He wasn't sure why he should care what Steve thought, but for some reason he did.

"What do you mean? Do I think Steve would like to know you're dating? Yeah, I think he _might_ want to know that." Pepper said seriously. She led Peter to the sofas and sat him down before sitting with him.

"Peter, two days before you came Steve was terrified. He's normally a blank slate according to Tony but even _I_ could tell he was terrified about something. We found out he was nervous about meeting you!" Pepper explained sincerely. "According to Tony he was an even worse wreck in the car. Fidgeting, huffing, sweating, the likes. Tony could see his rambling was annoying Steve to no end but he was sure the poor man would melt from nerves if he was left to his thoughts, then again, Tony is known to like the sound of his own voice. Peter, this man does want to be a part of your life, involve him. You don't need to do a large musical number or have a party, just say hi to him, strike up conversation, tell a funny joke from school, tell him your best friends names and mention that you have a girlfriend. He doesn't have to meet her, just, don't leave him out, you're the only family he has and he's your only family too."

Pepper finished and could see that her words had made an impact on Peter, she could see his mind whizzing as he combed through her words. She patted his shoulder in a comforting manner before standing up, bidding him good night and getting in the lift.

Once she had gone Peter sat in silence.

"Jarvis." He called out with a croaking voice. "Where's Steve?"

"Mister Rogers is currently working. He will be back in an undisclosed amount of time."

"Cheers." Peter croaked before heading to his room. Peter was too disconcerted to realise that he had no idea what Steve even did for his job.

Peter decided he needed to clear his mind and the best way to do that, was to fly!

Peter poked his head out of his room to check no one had materialised in the living room in the seconds he had been in his room before shutting and locking his door. He practically ran to where his suit was hidden and quickly gained access to it before stripping and changing into the red and blue costume.

"Jarvis," Peter called out, "if someone asks for me, say I'm in bed and asleep."

"Of course, sir." Jarvis replied.

Peter then walked to the window, fully clad in his spiderman gear with his mask in his hands, and looked down at the spectacular view of the city below him.

"Jarvis." Peter called out again. "Does Tony have any monitors on the window or cameras nearby."

"The windows are monitored but that can be changed. As for cameras, there are two within a ten metre radius of you outside as well as heat detectors monitoring the outside within a twenty metre radius." Jarvis informed.

"Okay, Jarvis, can you disconnect my window from the monitor discretely until I get back and put the cameras and other detectors within a fifty metre radius on a loop for the next minute." Peter ordered.

"Of course, sir." Jarvis confirmed.

"Before you do that," Peter said, "would you be able to detect me coming back?"

"If you allow me to scan your heat signature I will know you are nearby within the twenty metre heat detection range." Jarvis stated.

"Fine, scan away. Once you see me coming back, I want you to loop all the cameras and detectors again until I'm back in the room. Then put my window back on the normal whatever mode." Peter ordered. "Oh, and one last thing. Why am I able to do this?"

This was confusing Peter the most. He was just asking to disconnect several highly important security measures and Jarvis was doing this and not questioning a thing!

"Mister Stark has logged you as a resident of the Avengers Tower giving you practically full access to the security procedures and devices." Jarvis informed.

"Ah, cool." Peter nodded. He then turned serious. "Alright, Jarvis disconnect or loop everything like I said before starting... NOW!"

Peter pulled on his mask, pushed open the largest window and leapt as far away from the building as possible before allowing himself to fall towards the moving lights of the city below. After a moment of falling, Peter whipped his arm around and let loose some web fluid and then gliding through the city. Peter paused for a moment to look at the large tower he had just left, looking towards his room so it would be easy to find again.

Peter flew around cheering and whooping as he flung himself through the air. This was amazing and it helped him clear his head. Once Peter decided that he was ready to actually do something rather than just weave around avoiding cars, buildings and birds, he went looking for trouble.

Within two minutes he was swinging his way to a high pitched scream. He wasn't sure if he was just well positioned for that or if his spidey powers graced him with the powers of a trouble magnet, drawing him near to the dumb and deadly. Or maybe he was just dumb for chasing the deadly.

Anyway, Peter found the cause for the scream was a teenage girl being cornered by two, not very slim, men in an alley way, why was it always an alley way? Peter graciously landed in front of the girl facing the burly men.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's mean to pick on a woman?" Peter shot. Both men stumbled but one quickly regained his footing.

"Would you look at that! Spidey's sexist!" The fatter man chuffed.

This one had obviously been drinking. Even without his enhanced senses Peter could smell the stench of alcohol radiating off him. The other man looked slightly nervous though, he took a small step back.

"Fine, how about this, you pick on this woman, or bully anyone else and I swear you won't walk for months." Peter stated, venom drooling in his voice. He hated bullies. The slightly less fat man seemed to be the smart one, he started to edge out of the alley. He stopped when he realised his friend was deciding to be cocky.

"How about, we squash the spidey then get the girl?" The fatter one said in as menacingly a voice as he could manage at such a drunken level.

Peter stood up straight and shrugged his shoulders casually.

"Well, I'm up for it but I'd rather have a challenge." He taunted.

The fatter one growled and charged towards Peter. His spidey sense yelled at him to get out of the way as the man prepared to punch but Peter remembered the terrified girl cowering behind him. Instead, Peter used his extra strength to redirect the man as he attempted to punch and the man crashed into the wall groaning as he fell. Even though Peter had concluded that the other man was the smart one, he obviously wasn't that smart.

The man saw his unconscious friend and decided to defend said friends destroyed honour by attacking a man (or so they thought) who obviously out matched him. And he wasn't as sober as he could have been. The man raised his fists in a boxing style way and prepared to fight. Peter shrugged and stepped forwards. The man threw the first lunch which Peter easily avoided. He then dodged the next three before catching the fist on the fifth punch. The man stopped in shock and looked towards his covered fist and then up at spiderman. Peter began twisting the arm. The man began to struggle. Peter kept twisting. The man started kicking and yelping. Peter pushed the man back before doing a running leap and frog leaping the poor man so he fell face first into the dirty alleyway floor. There was a loud crunch as he fell. Peter picked the first man up before webbing him unconscious to the wall. He did the same with the other man and then looked over too the woman who attracted him to the fight. She looked about sixteen, seventeen. She only has a small amount of make up yet decided that even on this chilly night, it was appropriate to only wear a shirt and thin jumper. She wasn't thin, nor was she chubby but her face was a wreck. Tears streamed from her face.

"Hey, kid." Peter called cautiously, not wanting to scare her. She seemed to be in shock. Peter's voice broke her from her chain of thoughts and she looked around until she saw the men on the wall and spiderman looking directly at her, or at least his mask was.

"Ma'am, I need you to call the police, tell them what happened and then go home and get some rest. Maybe call someone you know to pick you up. Okay?" Peter continued slowly. The girl nodded but couldn't put a coherent sentence together. Peter nodded once he knew the order had been fully processed in her mind before checking that thick head one and thick head two (as he had now dubbed them) would stay unconscious and not frighten the girl further. He was about to swing off when he heard something behind him. He turned and saw the girl looking at him.

"I- I just wanted to say than -thanks." She stuttered. Peter nodded and the swung away looking for the next entertaining fight of the evening.

**Hello, do you like the quick update? Did I do the Spidey scene justice?**

**To all those who reviewed for the last chapter (and any others where I didn't say thanks), I can't tell you how happy you made me feel, replying to my story so quickly! Sorry for not responding to all of you, just know that I do take time to think about what you've said and take your compliments to heart!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Do not fear ladies and gents, for those wondering about the girl in the previous chapter, that was her one and only appearance. Anyway, on with the show!**

* * *

><p>Peter got home at around 3am. He completely forgot about all the security measures until Jarvis spoke.<p>

"Good morning, sir." Jarvis said. "Windows locked and alarm engaged."

Peter grumbled a response, climbed out of his costume, and shoved any spider related objects back into the compartment he pulled them out of. Once that was all back in place he flopped onto his bed and was asleep before he even hit the pillow.

Peter had dealt with three bag snatchers, a pick pocket, two attempts to rob convenience stores and a few drunks attempting to swing a punch at a poor old man. For some reason, there were no guns, or at least real ones. The attempted robberies used fakes and only one bag snatcher had a weapon which was, incidentally, a small knife. Peter still loved teasing people about their choice in weapons.

Peter didn't sleep late that morning. He woke up around 8am feeling groggy and confused. It took him a moment to establish his surroundings and then even longer to get out of bed. He wasn't one for falling back to sleep. Peter got up, strolled to the bathroom and locked the door. He turned on the taps to run a bath and brushed his teeth. Once he was sure that they were clean enough and the bath was a decent height, he climbed in and allowed himself to sink into the tub. Only his nose was out of the water. It was so nice and relaxing just to lie there... but Peter knew he had to get up. It was the unfortunate fact of life. He just didn't think the others would like to greet him if he stank like alleyways, alcohol and sweat. Peter pulled himself up and began cleaning.

Within half an hour he was down in the kitchen with the others, the others being Pepper and Bruce. Apparently Tony was still in one of his labs. He had yet to leave.

"Good morning, Peter." Bruce greeted.

Peter mumbled something that sounded vaguely like hi. Bruce laughed.

"I thought you must be some strange teen to be up this early willingly but no, you're normal." Pepper said with a serious tone of voice yet a smile on her face.

Peter nodded, pretending his brain understood that long sentence this early in the morning. Peter then grabbed a bowl, milk and coco pops before plonking himself down on the table and focusing on his food. Once he was nearly done he looked up thoughtfully.

"Do either of you know what Steve does for work?" Peter asked. His brain was starting to function once again and all that he didn't question last night was flooding into his brain.

Pepper looked at Bruce and Bruce looked at Pepper. Should they tell him? Would Steve want Peter to know he worked for spies? Was he allowed to know?

"Well..." Bruce started. Just then Tony came in. He looked around and noticed the slightly awkward silence.

"Well, what's going on here?" He asked.

"I just wanted to know what Steve does." Peter stated. He may not have known these three for very long but he knew if anyone would tell him, it would be Tony.

"Steve works for the government. What he actually does is up to him to tell you." Tony shrugged. Pepper's eyes widened in surprise. Tony was being thoughtful?! Even Bruce was a little shocked. Maybe it was the lack of sleep.

"Okay." Peter said, trying not to sound too disappointed with the response. "Any idea when he'll be back?"

Tony paused for a second.

"We could ask Jarvis." Tony suggested.

"Already tried." Peter replied. Again, he was trying to hide his disappointment. For the worlds greatest heroes, they weren't very... hero-y.

"Well, I'll make a few calls to find out but otherwise, I have no clue." Tony stated before making his way to the nearest source of caffeine.

There was another silence.

"So," Pepper broke in, "What are you going to do about schooling?"

Peter looked up. He hadn't really thought about it.

"Um, well..." Peter stuttered, lost for words. Tony chuffed in the background.

"He doesn't need school! I'll teach him myself!" Tony announced. Bruce rolled his eyes and Pepper raised an eyebrow. Peter just looked around dumbfounded, unsure of how serious that comment was.

"Hey! Don't look at me like that, Pep." Tony cried "I'd be a great teacher."

"With your attention span, work hours and other commitments I have to disagree." Pepper said in a dry voice.

So he was being serious... and since when were these two talking. Peter was sure they were fighting last time he saw them together, then again, someone did say they got over things quick. Was it Steve or Bruce? Oh wait, they were talking again!

"... so little faith in me!" Tony complained.

"No, I have realistic faith." Pepper countered. Peter decided to butt in.

"Well, my old school isn't too far away. I was just expecting to go back there I guess, if that's alright." Peter interrupted.

Tony and Pepper turned, just realising their little argument had been defused.

"Oh, yeah, that's a great plan." Pepper announced after getting her bearings.

"So," Bruce said after another silent pause. "when will you go back."

Peter thought about it. He had already missed a week of work, he didn't want to miss any more.

"Tomorrow I guess. I'll figure out my route tonight and set an alarm." Peter suggested.

"Sounds good." Tony agreed. "But why don't I drive you?"

It was an honest suggestion from a man wanting to do a friends great grandson a favour but Peter still disliked the idea.

"Well, um..." he stumbled over the words. How do you say no to a lift from Tony Stark?

"Why don't we let Peter make his own way there tomorrow, see how it is in case he has to make the trip when you're unavailable and then we can go from there?" Pepper suggested after noticing Peter's discomfort. Tony just shrugged, not noticing any problem with that and focused on his freshly made coffee.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day was uneventful. Peter watched Tony and Bruce in the labs, he dared not join in case he broke something. When he got excited, the spider power allowing him to stick to things got a bit out of hand. Right now, Peter would probably stick to non friction paint if given the equipment.<p>

Pepper interrupted once to get some details from Peter so she could phone the school and arrange the change of address and contacts. His classmates would be informed of some of his situation so that they wouldn't tease him for missing school or whatever they might be planning. They would know about May's untimely death and that he now lived with a long lost relative which was true. He had been lost for about seventy years give or take.

Apparently Tony's phone call about when Steve would be back came to a blank. Peter wasn't really listening but he caught part of the conversation.

"But Nicky," it went. "the kid wants to know."

"..."

"No, I think I'm being reasonable."

"..."

"Oh come on, I did that, not Peter!"

"..."

"Fine, I won't hack in next time, I'll ask and then hack in."

"..."

"I just want an estimate for him."

After a few more minutes of what sounded like unrelated banter, Tony put down the phone.

"Well, sorry kiddo, the grumpy pirates not giving anything away." Tony huffed before walking out the room. Peter raised an eyebrow but decided to just drop it.

He went out as Spiderman a little earlier so that he wouldn't be back so late. Unfortunately, some villains weren't as thoughtful and decided to attempt a robbery with hostages at around midnight which lasted until one in the morning. On his way back he encountered several muggings, an attempted rape and a fight. He got back at four in the morning.

* * *

><p>Peter's first Monday back at school was uneventful. He found a quick route using the bus and his skateboard and arrived with three minutes till the bell rang. People stared. Some were sympathetic, others were just stares, slightly unnerving stares. Peter ignored them and found Gwen whom he greeted and then departed from to attend lessons. They didn't have everything together so he would have to wait until lunch to talk to her.<p>

Peter went around his teachers and asked for any work he could catch up on. Some, like his chemistry teacher who liked him, were kind and gave only the minimum. Others, like his English teacher piled him with books to analyse, essays to write and a few other documents which seemed like they weren't homework, rather, torture assignments for being absent during class. They couldn't have gone through _all _of this in one week!

* * *

><p>When Peter got home he didn't look for the others, he went straight up to his and Steve's shared floor. Steve still wasn't back so Peter dumped his loaded bag on the settee and sat on the floor so that he could use the coffee table to write all his work on. There was an insane amount. Peter wanted to go out as Spiderman tonight but after the late nightmorning last time and the insane amount of work, Peter went to bed early with the attitude of 'I'll do it tomorrow' hoping he would be more awake then.

Peter couldn't sleep with all the over due work and all the stuff he got that day. Maths questions buzzed around his head until his brain became merciful at around one in the morning.

This continued through Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Peter decided to say 'screw you' to work at around seven in the evening on all three nights and went out as Spiderman. Although, on Wednesday he gave up at five. There was lots of flying about, a gun trade and a few police who decided they didn't like him and so shot at him. Peter was finished by one in the morning on Tuesday and Wednesday and two on Thursday. On Thursday he didn't get to sleep until three due to having to sow up his suit because of a knife cut. Thankfully the wound was only a scratch and due to enhanced abilities, it should be gone by the morning but the suit wasn't so lucky. Peter woke an hour early on Friday because of an alarm sounding through Avengers Tower. Peter yawned as he watched the latest model of the iron man suit fly into the distance. Apparently Hulk wasn't needed this time. After the rude awakening Peter couldn't get back to sleep. He got up, did his usual routine and then went down for breakfast where Bruce was reading the morning paper. It was the science section. Once Peter had filled his body with enough caffeine to get him till lunch, Bruce and Peter talked about one of the topics. Was technology becoming to important in this day and age, could we live without it?

They both agreed that they could survive twenty four hours without tech. Steve would be able to too. Tony was a whole other situation.

School was boring but at least Flash wasn't being a pain. Gwen was interesting to talk with although, at the moment is was more of a Q&A session on what Tony and Bruce were like, their latest inventions and all things science. It was great having someone who could talk in the language of science and wouldn't blank at the term 'splitting atoms' or 'gamma radiation'.

Even Peter's kindest teachers decided to give him extra homework so that he hadn't missed out on too much the previous week. Peter was doing a terrible job at catching up. At least he had gotten through English! It was a great achievement for him.

Finally, on Friday night, Peter decided he couldn't go out. He had to get through this work or he'd never be done by Monday morning. Steve still hadn't come back and for some reason that was making Peter paranoid. As well as having the different ways to combat CO2 running through his brain, Peter started having questions like 'why hasn't he come back yet?', 'is he hurt?' ' does he not want to see me? Is it my fault he's gone?'.

All of these questions, combined with over working his brain, lack of sleep and lack of eating due to constantly working, it was understandable that Peter fell asleep over his history text book. It was focusing on different trends throughout the years, Peter was to out of it to understand a work of it yet he had kept reading until the words started dancing across the page and jumping around. Peter had blinked to focus himself. On the third blink his eyes didn't open. Peter was sat on the floor of his shared living room, books and papers surrounding him and a history book on the table.

And that is exactly how Steve found him at five in the morning. Steve had been on what was supposed to be a two day mission. It had started with a phone call from SHIELD on Saturday morning during his run. Apparently Fury just wanted him to come in, discuss an upcoming mission and then he'd prepare for whenever he had to leave. Fury didn't care about the hygiene so he was picked up from the closest road. He had arrived and been briefed on a terrorist group that somehow got their hands on very high-tech weapons which was concerning. Apparently Clint (Hawkeye) and Natasha (Black Widow) were already near where the mission would take place so they would be his back up and according to the latest intel that had come during his drive over, Steve didn't have a chance to go back home and grab anything. Anything and everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. One of the crew he was flying out with had switched sides due to a hefty sum of money. This had caused Steve to have to jump out of the plane earlier than planned. It took him over a day to get to the actual designated drop point. He had lost his communicator so he was practically stranded with no way of calling anyone. Along with that, he noticed that he had forgotten to tell Peter he was leaving. He wasn't used to having someone around who would probably want to know if he was going away.

Once he got to the drop point he was ambushed by a rivalling terrorist group who wanted the other groups weapons. The mission had gotten so out of hand, somehow he had got in touch with Clint and Natasha so they came to help out. Natasha had finally asked for more help on the sixth day. Tony was sent over to help. A highly weaponised gang joined in the fight and it was a blood bath!

Finally, somehow, they won! It was Friday evening in America when they finished and they got in a quinjet and flew back to base to meet Fury. They arrived at a ridiculous time in the morning so the briefing was quite quick. Natasha and Clint agreed to come to the tower and Steve tried to find out about how Peter had been as inconspicuously as possible. He didn't want to look too desperate to find out but Tony's crap-eating grin told Steve that he failed. Apparently Peter had a lot of work to catch up on and was quite tired. Nothing eventful. He told Steve all he remembered while in his tired condition. After that, they had ended up at the tower and here Steve stood, staring at Peter's sleeping form. There was something in his face that reminded Steve of Peggy. That made him smile slightly.

He looked over at the still opened lift and saw Natasha and Clint looking out curiously. They were wondering what he was looking at and smiling at. Steve waved them off with a good night and waited for the doors to shut before deciding what to do. In the end, he lifted Peter's light body (a bit too light) towards the boy's room and tucked him in to bed. Once he was sure that Peter wasn't going to vanish from his bed, Steve went back to the living room and moved a few papers to clear the place up a bit. He didn't want to disrupt them too much in case Peter had them in a particular order.

Finally, after a long, soaking shower, Steve climbed into his own bed. Normally he didn't like his bed because it was too comfortable. Tonight/morning he didn't care. He was asleep very quickly.

* * *

><p>Peter slept in until around eight in the morning before waking up and thinking that something was very odd. He wasn't sure what but it was incredibly weird.<p>

Peter looked around the room, trying to decide what was causing his dead morning brain to go ballistic when it was hardly awake. That was it! He was in his room! Peter thought back to the night before and realised that he didn't remember getting into bed.

"Jarvis." Peter called.

"Yes, sir." the voice responded.

"How did I get into bed?" Peter questioned.

"Mister Rogers carried you." the AI answered.

Peter took a second to understand who Jarvis was talking about. He had only seen Steve for one day before the man had disappeared. Now he was back! He hadn't abandoned Peter! So Peter could spend the weekend getting to know the man, just like Pepper suggested.

Peter shot out of bed to do his morning needs so that he would be wide awake when Steve woke, unless the man wasn't awake already, then Peter would just have to get ready quickly!

Peter stepped out of his room to go to the bathroom when he noticed his homework strewn across the floor. He cringed. There would be no getting to know anyone until all that work was done!

Peter used the bathroom, less energetic then he had been two minutes ago, and did his morning business. Peter then went to the floor which had been his seat for the past week and picked off where he left off. Now he was actually awake, his history was pretty easy. He had to answer a few questions, draw a diagram and was finished in twenty minutes. He looked at the mountain of homework peaking out of his bag and surrounding him on the floor. It looked endless! So, Peter stood up and started organising it. Anything that was done or he didn't need for work was put to the left and the work he had to do was put to the right. Once that was sorted it didn't look so bad. Biology was alright, it took him about forty five minutes and that removed a large textbook from the pile of work in the to do section.

Peter trudged on through, ignoring the stomach pains begging for food and continued to write. At ten o'clock there was movement coming from Steve's room but Peter was too focused to notice. The door opened and Peter kept scribbling away. Steve walked over. He had his pyjama bottoms on but hadn't slept with a shirt so he would have felt slightly cold if not for his enhanced abilities.

"Please tell me that isn't the pile of work you have to do." Steve said. Peter jumped into the air, knocking over the tower of books and paper to his left.

Once he got over the initial shock he looked over at Steve.

"A little warning would be nice, I'm not accustomed to jumping out of my skin this early in the morning!" Peter said, terror still showing in his voice. Steve cracked a smile and raised his hands in a sign of defence.

"I'm sorry." he apologised. "Good morning."

Peter just nodded in response before sliding back down to correct his fallen paper/book tower. Steve knelt down to help.

"You still haven't answered my question." Steve acknowledged. Peter looked up at a smiling Steve. He realised the man was teasing him.

"Thankfully, this is the completed tower." Peter replied in relief. Steve looked the tower up and down whistling as a sign of approval. "Trust me. If I still had this much to do I think I'd rather jump out the window."

Peter said it in a light tone with a look of relief so Steve just laughed.

"I hear you've been working all week." Steve mentioned. The both sat down; Peter sat on the floor where he had previously sat and Steve sat on a sofa facing him.

"Yeah, I think the teachers just decided to give me extra homework and catch up work because they either hate me or they're jealous of my skills." Peter joked. He was too tired and hungry to realise that he was having banter with Captain America (this whole thing still made him star struck to think about). Steve was incredibly happy that Peter seemed to have opened up since they had last seen each other.

"And what skills might they be?" Steve asked with amusement shining in his eyes.

"I'm not too sure..." Peter admitted jokily. "But I'm sure they're there, somewhere. And people are jealous."

Steve laughed and Peter woke from his hunger and tiredness stupor. He had made Captain America full out laugh. _Captain America_! Peter turned serious. He didn't know the captain very well but he wanted to, he was family after all. That thought made him upset, as amazing as this man was supposed to be, where had he been during the last week? Why had he left Peter without even a note? Okay, they weren't best _buds _or anything but still, if you agree to be someone's guardian you don't just dump them, do you?

"Where were you?" Peter asked seriously. Steve stopped grinning at looked at the boy. He saw real concern in the teens face as well as a hint of fear in his eyes. Steve guessed that Peter feared he had been forgotten. And in truth, he had been at the beginning.

"I was working." Steve said basically. He would elaborate but he might as well set the first layer down.

"I was told that part." Peter said blankly. Steve could see that that was the only part Peter knew about.

"I got called away during my run. I was to leave immediately to confront terrorist and with all the hustle and bustle I just forgot my first duty." Steve responded honestly.

"What's that?" Peter asked quietly, watching Steve intently.

"I'm your guardian now, Peter, my first duty is to you." Steve announced. "I'm sorry that I've already failed that, I'll do better next time."

Even though that was a very childish and soppy thing to say, they both felt better, Steve for admitting that he wanted to do right by Peter and put effort in to make it work and Peter because he needed to hear that. He needed to hear that Steve cared. Though neither of them would admit to the strong implications those two sentences meant to themselves.

Steve started telling Peter about his job with SHIELD and how it was them who tracked Peter down. He talked about the mission he just went on, leaving all the gruesome parts out and exaggerating other parts for Peter's enjoyment. Peter was a good listener and thoroughly enjoyed listening. After about two hours of mostly Steve talking and Peter listening Tony's voice came over the speakers.

"I hear you two are up." Tony's voice proclaimed.

"And?" Steve responded loudly for the microphones to pick up.

"And, it's nearly lunch. You two good with ordering pizza?" Tony asked. Steve looked at Peter for confirmation and the teen grinned and nodded. Just then, Peter's stomach gave a loud growl causing Steve to laugh.

"Yeah, pizza sounds good." Steve announced.

Tony mumbling came over the speakers.

"He was laughing. How the hell did the kid get him laughing?" The voice mumbled before cutting off.

"Right, I'm going to use the bathroom then we'll head down together. Sound good?" Steve asked.

"Yeah," Peter replied turning back to the table. "take your time. I still have about ten minutes of homework to get through before I'm free."

Steve smiled as he walked away. He didn't know Peter very well but if this morning and the Friday they had first met were anything to go by, he wanted to know a lot more about him. What he didn't know was that Peter was thinking exactly the same thing.

**Did the Steve and Peter scene live up to expectations. Please tell me what you think! Was it crap, throw it in the bin, good or decent?**

**Also a massive thanks to those who reviewed so quickly! And look how many favourites there are and followers! That is an impressive amount and I thank all of you, even guest who's statistics aren't there, your support and actual want for this story is what makes there be updates. If you don't want it, it will not come! So thank you!**


	13. Chapter 13

After the sappy talk the two relatives had, Peter waited eagerly for Steve to finish getting ready for lunch so they could go down. He hoped to speak to Tony about the arc reactor powering the tower. He had no use for it personally but Peter had questions about it that needed answering, such as how did he come up with the idea? How is the energy collected and the fused into the system to create electricity? Peter would find out soon enough because Steve had just stepped out of his room.

"Homework finished?" Steve asked as he walked over.

"Done and dusted, finally!" Peter said triumphantly. They both headed over to the elevator. Finally the doors opened and they walked in.

Steve stood there and remembered something he should probably warn Peter about.

"Hey, Pete." Steve said. Peter looked up at Steve. "You might meet a few of my team mates in a moment. They can be a bit... intimidating. Once you get to know them, they're fine."

Peter looked at Steve in wonder, trying to think who, out of all the people he had seen on TV would be the people down stairs. He was about to find out because the doors slid open and they both stepped out.

Before much could happen they were assaulted by Tony who practically ran into them.

"Sorry," he said off handed. "Wasn't watching were I was going."

They both shrugged it off. Tony then realised who he had bumped into after a moment of brain discombobulating and grinned.

"Ah, they finally join us!" Tony cried. "Steve, how did you actually get him to come down for lunch? First time in ages! As for you Pete, how did you get Steve here to laugh?"

Steve rolled his eyes at Tony's antics and Peter, only semi used to him, started mumbling incoherent words that sounded like 'what?'. When neither of them properly answered, Tony tried to encourage them.

"Well?" He pushed.

"People get hungry, they go and get food." Steve explained in a voice that sounded like he was talking to a child. Tony huffed.

"Well, how did you get gramps to laugh?" Tony said ignoring Steve. Peter was really confused. What was so shocking about Steve laughing?

"You know," a female voice said behind Tony. "Steve does laugh, he is human."

"No he's not!" Tony argued turning around. Peter could see a red head sitting comfortably on the sofa looking at her phone as if she had said nothing. "He's a robot with a stick up his arse!"

"Thank you for being understanding, Tony." Steve said sarcastically before guiding Peter away from Tony and to the sofa. The woman on the sofa looked up and then stood up.

"Good morning, Steve." She said politely. She then looked at Peter. Peter felt naked in front of her as if she was looking at him through his clothes and judging ever tiny thing about him.

"Morning, Natasha." Steve greeted. "Natasha, this is Peter, my great grandson."

"Hi." Peter said with a small wave. Natasha stuck out a hand which Peter shook.

"You have a firm grasp, Peter. That's always a good thing." Natasha noted randomly. Peter was confused but considering no one bat an eyelid over the unusual comment he assumed it was normal.

"Um, thanks." Peter said, unsure of the usual response. Natasha realised the discomfort she was causing Peter making her smile a little bit. Natasha then cleared her face of emotion and turned to Steve.

"We have done the debrief but Fury wants to clarify a few things from your report. He wants you to see him at some point today. He'll send a time to see him." Natasha informed Steve.

"I have to go too so I'll keep you company. I'm in trouble of something." Said a male voice coming from the kitchen area. You could tell the guy was smirking. Steve walked over to where the voice came from, Peter followed a step behind.

Crouching on the fridge in the kitchen was a muscular but lean man with short blondish hair. He was watching Steve and Peter as they walked in.

"Clint, this is-" Steve begun.

"Peter." Clint finished. "I heard you introduce him to Natasha. I'm Clint Barton."

Peter waved up at Clint but he was quite curious now.

"Why are you in trouble?" Peter asked.

"Something about not scaring the newbies." Clint shrugged.

"No, something about not shooting arrows at them." Natasha's voice called from the other room.

"Wait, what?" Peter was confused.

"Allegedly, I shot arrows at the new workers." Clint explained with a grin which said he obviously did it.

"It was caught on camera." Came Natasha's voice. Clint looked shocked.

"Wait, what?" Clint questioned. "I wasn't even in the room!"

"No, you were in the ceiling." Natasha replied wearily.

"Damn it." Clint muttered.

Just then, Tony's voice was heard by the lift.

"Yeah, just take it to the table and put them down. I don't like being handed stuff."

A pizza delivery man came in with nine boxes seemingly in a daze. First, Tony Stark greets him, then he walks into a room with a man crouching on the fridge. What makes it worse is when the guy on the fridge (Clint) does a flip of the fridge and lands delicately on the floor. Tony then hands the man an obscene amount of money which definitely covers the pizzas over ten times that amount.

"Keep the change." Tony said before sending the man on his way and taking a chair by the table. The others quickly follow including Bruce who had hidden himself in a corner of the room to read.

It's a nice lunch with a lot of small talk. Peter finally got to ask his questions much to the delight of Tony and even Bruce who explained in no little detail the process of creating an arc reactor and converting the energy into electricity. All the science babble as Clint put it, caused an argument. Clint groaned about all the sciency words causing Tony to defend his actions by saying he was educating an empty mind. When Clint tried to argue back asking for just a little less on the technical terms Tony increased the amount of technical language until even Peter was having trouble keeping up. Clint then complained and for everything Clint said, Tony opposed in one way or another.

Finally, Peter plucked up the courage to talk with Steve.

"Hey, Steve. What do you actually do?" Peter asked.

Steve looked over at Bruce and Tony.

"We didn't tell him." Bruce said answering the unasked question.

Steve then looked at Clint and Natasha.

"He is your relative under your guardianship, you have the right to tell him if you want. If Fury doesn't like it he can stuff it where the sun don't shine." Clint said.

Steve nodded before turning to Peter.

"I work for the government." Steve said. Peter nodded but couldn't help but feel a little downhearted. Seeing Peter's face, Steve quickly continued. "It's a private section of the government, a secret organisation known as SHIELD which stands for Strategic homeland something, something logistic division."

"Basically, his job is to throw his shield about, cover my arse and look pretty." Clint explained with a grin.

"No, it's to make people think he's actually good at something and have him show up and then make me look spectacular by calling me in." Tony argued. And so the arguments started again.

"Steve gets called in to stop terrorist attacks. He gets sent to a location and then defuses the situation by any means and then comes home to debrief." Natasha explained seriously over the argument.

Peter looked at Steve for clarification. Steve just nodded his head.

Just then, two identical beeps went of signalling two separate people that they had a message. Steve pulled out his phone at the same time as Clint pulled out his although Steve had a bigger frown on then Clint.

"Fury wants us there ASAP." Clint informed the others, still looking at his phone.

"What's wrong Steve?" Natasha asked, seeing his facial expression.

"He wants me to bring Pete as well." Steve said slowly.

Wait, what would this Fury guy want with him? Peter thought to himself. Did he know about him being spider-man? Was he planning on taking Peter away from Steve? Would the others care if he was being taken away? Where were they going to put him? Did they think he was a threat?

Peter's thought train was stopped when Tony spoke up.

"What the hell does that pirate want with Peter?" Tony asked furiously.

"It doesn't say. But Peter, if you don't want to come, you don't have to, I'll talk to Fury, find out what's going on." Steve explained.

"No, he should go now or Fury will adopt unconventional methods to talk to Peter, whatever he wants, he gets. He's just polite the first time he asks." Natasha stated in a monotonous voice.

"She's right. Take him now but we'll keep an eye on things." Clint said honestly. Steve stood up and looked both spies in the eyes, trying to detect if they were lying or not. They seemed to be being truthful. Steve put a hand on Peter's tense shoulder.

"Don't worry, Peter. Whatever this is about, we'll make sure nothing happens." Steve said encouragingly.

With that, Clint and Peter both stood up and followed Steve out of the kitchen area.

"Sirs, a quinjet is landing on the helipad area on the rooftop." Jarvis informed them.

"Thank you, Jarvis. We'll be there in a minute." Steve said as he called for the elevator. They all climbed in and started heading upwards.

**I'm sorry to stop it there but I haven't updated in a while and knew I needed to but it's also late and I need sleep.**

**What do you think?**

**There's a random poll on my profile please check it out.**

**I went to a Q&A session with the producers of Spiderman last week, it was amazing, I saw so many clips I was practically crying! Just thought you should know**

**People have asked if this will be based on Winter Soldier or Amazing Spiderman 2. I might add elements but otherwise, no, probably not.**


	14. Chapter 14

Peter would have been in awe of the quinjet if he hadn't been so terrified, even fighting the Lizard hadn't been this nerve wracking. He sat in silence on one of the many seats. Steve sat opposite, thinking of all the reasons Fury might want to talk with Peter. Conversation had died down quickly. It had mainly been asking Peter what Fury might want and Peter mumbling and muttering about not knowing. Steve just knew that if Fury wanted to take Peter away for any reason then he would not stand for it.

Clint, on the other hand, was having a blast. He loved terrifying new recruits and their pilot happened to be one. He sat by the cockpit and picked up every minor detail the man was doing and then criticizing him on it even though he was doing pretty well.

Finally they arrived and Steve put a hand lightly on Peter's shoulder to guide him since the teen didn't believe his legs would walk voluntarily. From what he'd picked up from listening in to conversations, Fury was mean, manipulative and a little bit terrifying. He was also head of a super secret spy organisation and for some reason he wanted to speak to Peter, nothing terrifying about that at all now, is there?

A woman who introduced herself as Agent Hill directed them to Fury, explaining to Steve what he needed to do along the way. She then turned to Clint and told him that she would be the one going through the process of reprimanding him with all the paperwork (who knew there was paperwork to be punished!) but Fury still wanted to talk to him. She didn't talk to Peter.

They entered a large office with a large window and cream, stony walls. Fury was sitting at the only desk in the room. When they came in he leaned against the back of his chair and looked at them all. Hill stood waiting by the door.

"Agent Barton, you have been with SHIELD for many years, you know we need knew staff. Why do you need to terrify them?" Fury asked, his voice slowly rising.

"Well, sir. I believe that the employees who get a little terrified of small attacks and scream like little girls should not be working with a company like SHIELD." Clint explained. His years of training to look emotionless were paying off.

"That is why they have training to join, so they are ready for anything." Fury said.

"Sir, if I might be so bold." Clint cut in. "They were not ready for the arrows."

"Barton, I don't want you to scare off anymore recruits!" Fury ordered angrily. Steve could feel Peter tense up even more beside him. Peter was terrified. This man with an eye patch already had the natural look of _don't mess with me_ but now he was in a bad mood! This could not go well.

Clint was dismissed and Hill followed him out.

"Rogers, we've had people look over your briefing yesterday and a few things don't make sense." Fury said going back to his seat. He looked much calmer now.

"Such as?" Steve questioned.

"Such as, some of our own men and women betrayed us!" Fury stated. "You were also unclear on how you rendezvoused with Agents Romanoff and Barton. If you go to debriefing room six, they'll sort it out."

Fury stared at Steve as if to say, I'm done now, you can go. Steve stayed right where he was next to Peter.

"Sir, what do you want with Peter?" Steve asked.

"I want to talk to him about Doctor Kurt Connors." Fury stated.

Peter wasn't sure whether it was safe to breathe easy again or if he knew about the whole incident with the man.

Steve looked down at Peter and saw recognition to the name on the boys face.

"Do you want me to stay?" Steve asked Peter quietly. Peter wasn't sure. He didn't want to trust Steve with his secret yet and maybe this conversation would lead to it. He also wasn't proud in his involvement with creating the serum that caused Connors to become the lizard. As uncomfortable as sitting with Fury by himself would be, Peter made up his mind.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Peter said in as reassuring voice as he could muster. Steve could still feel the tension in Peter's body and didn't believe him but, with a warning glare to Fury, he left, shutting the door behind him.

"Take a seat Mister Parker." Fury said, motioning to the seat opposite him. Peter slowly sat down.

Fury assessed him and could see he was nervous. It was almost enjoyable to make the kid squirm but he wasn't that evil.

"Mister Parker, it came to our attention that you were assisting Doctor Connors when he created the animal serum. I would like to know how and why?" Fury stated getting straight to the point.

This shocked Peter, he was expecting more of an interrogation with them having a completely wrong point of view on the whole thing. He relaxed a little.

"I found out Connors worked with my father. My uncle had just found my dad's old briefcase and I found some of his research and how he worked for OsCorp. I went to... a tour there and listened to doctor Connors going on about his research and how it was incomplete and then I looked at my father's research and saw that it was the help Connors needed so I took it to him." Peter explained. Fury decided to intervene.

"Did it not occur to you that there was a reason your father had taken the research away and not left it at OsCorp before leaving?" Fury asked.

"Not at the time. Later on, sure, it seemed obvious but no one would tell me about my dad so I thought I might as well talk to the man who worked with him. He seemed to genuinely just want his arm back and to help others so I helped him and learnt from him. I swear to you, I didn't know it would go wrong!" Peter said honestly. Fury looked at Peter as if he was assessing him.

They sat like that for several long, drawn out minutes; Fury assessing Peter and Peter sitting nervously waiting for Fury to call it a bluff. Finally, Fury spoke up.

"Doctor Connors wants to speak with you. He's in a holding facility not far from here. Would you like to see him?" Fury asked. Peter was shocked once again.

"Um, sure. Do you know what he wants?" Peter asked. Fury shook his head.

"He won't tell anyone. Once the interviews were done he went silent although he's been speaking to himself a lot, as if there is someone else in the room with him. He's also been diagnosed as bipolar." Fury explained standing up and walking out of the room. Peter quickly followed, having difficulty not running to keep up with Fury's fast strides.

"He wasn't like that before the serum, maybe it created two of him, he was a different person once he became the lizard." Peter said trying to keep up without giving any of his powers away.

"So you mean that there is Connors and then there's the Lizard both in his brain at the same time?" Fury asked not stopping.

"Yeah, so when he gets angry or whatever he becomes, it's the lizard part becoming dominant and when he's talking to himself he can see the alternate personality before him." Peter explained.

They had gone through many corridors and down the lift. They were now entering a hanger with lots of different flying machines; some helicopters, quinjets, a large plane and even a few vehicles that looked like they could go underwater.

"I want you to talk to Connors and see if you can test your theory." Fury said stopping by a black jeep with a SHIELD logo on it. Fury opened the door to the shot gun seat and motioned for Peter to go in but held the door open once he was seated. A female agent was already in the driver's seat. She had long brown hair tied into a ponytail with the normal SHIELD uniform of dark blue skin tight one piece. Her back was straight and she was looking straight out the window, ignoring the movement next to her.

"Take him to the underwater prison block 2*" Fury said to the driver. She nodded. Peter looked around to see if he could see Steve. He felt uncomfortable just being shoved in the car and sent off. Fury could see what Peter was doing.

"I'll send Steve over once he's done." Fury said before slamming the door shut.

The drive was uncomfortably quiet. The woman only made small precise movements when driving, never taking her eyes off the road or slacking her back even a little. She made no attempt to communicate with Peter whatsoever.

After half an hour of driving they pulled into a junk yard with an abandoned warehouse and a large gate with the sign PRIVATE PROPERTY on the front. The agent drove up to the gate, rolled down her window and pressed what looked like a wad of gum on the wall. A small square of the wall slid upwards revealing a tiny blue screen. The agent started into the small screen and a little light came out and scanned her left eye.

A green light showed on the blue pad.

"Voice recognition." A robotic voice said.

"Agent Mary Francis." The agent, Mary Francis, said clearly.

The gate slid open with a lot more speed and vigour then Peter thought was possible looking by its age and rustiness. Then again, the look was probably just a front for people going passed.

Agent Francis drove in through the gate and towards the building. The doors of the building lifted like garage doors and they drove in. Francis stopped the car in the middle of the room and turned off the engine. It was a large warehouse with grey walls and grey floors. There was absolutely nothing significant about it. They sat there, car parked, engine off, in pure silence. Then, after about a minute there was a loud BING and a green light showed on the wall in front of them. Peter hadn't even seen the light bulb. Not only that, he nearly jumped out of his skin when the noise came. Agent Francis smirked slightly. The first emotion he sees on her face and it's laughing at him.

"Security check." She explained simply.

The floor below them starts to move down, just enough space for the car, the rest of the floor stays where it is. Peter looks around as they sink into the floor. Once they come to a stop in a pitch black area, Peter heard a click and loads of lights came on. They were in a grey panelled room which looked more like the SHIELD vehicles hangar then an abandoned warehouse.

Peter looked through the skylight of the car and saw a panel, the size of the piece that took them down, cover the whole in the ceiling, well floor, well – oh well. It covered the whole above him that they had just come down through.

An agent walked forwards who seemed to be waiting for him. He opened the door to Peter's side and stood out the way so Peter could climb out.

"This way Mister Parker." The man said once he shut the car door. Peter followed and heard an engine and looked behind to see a heavy duty steel door open so Agent Francis could park. The door shut and bolted several times over behind her. Peter was taken out of that room and into another which had a metal detector for a doorway. Peter didn't beep thankfully. Once inside, Peter was sat at a desk and the agent who opened the car door sat opposite him. He had a sheet of paper in his hand and a pen.

"Mister Parker, I need you to sign this confidentiality form. They state that you are not to talk to anyone other than high ranking SHIELD officials about what you have seen concerning SHIELD and anything you do see after this point. We have the rights to lock you up for the rest of your life if this agreement is breached." The agent explained.

Peter took the sheet of paper and scanned it before finding the SIGN HERE part and scribbling his signature. The agent then took the paper and signed his own name underneath before rolling it up, putting it in a cylinder container and walking to a tube that went through the wall. He took off the lid to the tube and put the cylinder inside that vanished like it had been sucked in by a vacuum. Which, in all honesty, it had been.

Peter was then taken to a lift which went further underground for over a minute at a very fast pace before being led to a room with a table and two chairs, one on either side. All of the furniture had been bolted down. Peter was left alone for another few minutes. He wondered what Steve was doing. Was he on his way or was he still sorting out what happened.

Finally, the door opposite him swung open and two agents escorted Doctor Connors into the room. He looked like he had seen many, many better days.

"Peter, you actually came." Connors said happily. He took the seat opposite Peter and they were left alone but Peter could see the agents outside the room.

"Hi Doctor Connors, how have you been?" Peter asked nervously.

"I've been good, it's not as bad as it looks here." Connors said with a shrug.

"Sir, I was told you wanted to talk to me." Peter said getting straight to the point. As delighted as he was to see Connors unhurt and happy, he still felt uncomfortable here and wanted to go.

"Peter I need a favour of you." Connors said. "I need you to either complete my research, help others get limbs without side effects!"

Peter looked into Connors pleading eyes, he just wanted to help them.

"Sir, I don't know anything further than your research and my fathers." Peter said, confused.

"Ah, but Peter, you're smart, you'll figure it out." Connors said with a fond smile.

"What was the other thing you wanted?" Peter asked.

"I need you to reverse the serum that I used." Connors said, his look turned to one of a man willing to beg.

"But, we already found the reverse." Peter said, he looked around. "Spider-man used it on you to change everyone back."

"No, no, no." Connors said getting increasingly nervous. "It reversed the physical effects but not the psychological ones! No, shut up! I'm speaking to him!"

Peter looked around. Who was Connors talking to?

"Sir, what do you mean?" Peter asked. He looked at Connors but the man wasn't looking at him, he was looking to the left of him.

"The lizard is still there, his personality, it's still here. No, he shouldn't know!" Connors started shouting.

"Doctor Connors, there's no one there." Peter said looking from Connors to where the man was looking to.

"Peter, Peter, please, just look into reversing the psychological ef..." Connors stopped talking and seemed to have frozen.

"Connors?" Peter said. The man didn't respond. He didn't move.

"Sir?" Peter said a bit more urgently. He looked towards the small windows in the doors, unsure if he should call for help. He looked towards the window behind him. No one had moved. Peter then turned back and almost jumped. Connors was moving again but he was – different. He had a wide grin on, he sat more confidently and he kept licking his bottom lip. It was really creepy.

"Hello Peter." Connors drooled.

"I'm guessing I'm not talking to Kurt Connors anymore, am I." Peter said. It was a fact, not a question.

"You always were so bright." The man said in an over complimentary voice.

"Where is Connors?" Peter asked slowly.

"Oh, he's about." The man's grin widened.

"What do you want?" Peter asked. He knew he would be powerless if the man attacked. He was sure there were cameras in the room so he couldn't climb walls or do impressive flips. He didn't have his web fluid and for some reason, Connors was actually scaring him.

"Oh, can't we just talk?" the man shrugged.

"We can, but I doubt that's what you actually want." Peter said. The man chuckled evilly.

"Oh yes, so bright." Connors muttered, still grinning, still licking his bottom lip. He leaned forwards as quickly as a snake goes to bite its prey. He was only inches away from Peter's face. Peter would have jumped if his spidey sense hadn't warned him.

"You're going to help me get out." Connors whispered darkly.

"And why would I do that." Peter said, he was doing an impressive job of hiding his fear.

"Oh Peter." He drooled. "I know so much about you. I know daddy's darkest secrets. I know what he did to you."

Peter was angry and confused now.

"My father did nothing wrong." Peter said, his voice rising.

"Oh yes he did." Connors said quietly. "A little spider wouldn't have come about without a little encouragement."

Pete glared at Connors.

Connors then jumped on Peter, Peter wanted to avoid it but even with his quick reflexes, being stuck on a solid chair and being against a much larger man in a small environment, Peter was pinned.

Connors grabbed his neck and started chocking him. Connors was lying across the table, his feet hooked around his chair so he couldn't be slid off.

"I can tell you his secrets. You can't help Connors, he's gone, gone I tell you." The imposter cackled into Peter's ear. Peter could smell his horrid breath. "The scars on your chest, the ones I gave you. Do they burn? Do they hurt? Do you remember George Stacy, how he died because of you?"

Just then, there was a loud bang as the door flung open, there was shouting and then Peter could breath! Peter gulped at the air and didn't realise someone was trying to talk to him until he felt a warm hand on his shoulder.

"... alright?" Peter looked up and saw Steve kneeling beside him, asking him a question. Worry was surrounding his features. Peter nodded and Steve helped him up.

"Come on, let's go home." Steve said, supporting a shocked Peter. Peter looked around, bewildered and saw three agents restraining Connors.

"You can't hide, Peter." Connors laughed evilly. "I know all about you, I'll find you!"

Steve guided Peter to the car. Peter didn't realise where they were until his door opened and he was looking at the Avengers Tower. Peter didn't remember going through all of the security to get out or any of the drive. He was just glad to be back.

***I made this jail up.**

**What do you think? Was it any good?**

**Random Poll still in place, please have a look.**


	15. Chapter 15

Tony sat, stretched out in the living room with Bruce typing on his new Stark computer. Natasha sat opposite them on a different sofa with her back straight reading some crime or horror book called Velocity and Clint looked like he was attempting to get some shut eye when, in fact, he was meditating. Most people wouldn't expect that from Clint but in all honesty he was a focused man, no matter how much he joked. He meditated to keep calm and focused as well as to practice keeping still.

Tony looked around the room and did a loud, dramatic yawn. They ignored him. Tony yawned again, this time more dramatically. Bruce sighed.

"What's wrong Tony?" he asked, not looking up.

"I'm bored!" the man replied flinging his arms around. When he realised that no one cared he sat himself up using his arms to propel himself.

"Any news on why one-eye wanted to see our residential kid?" Tony asked.

"If he wanted to speak to the kid of the tower, Director Fury would have called you." Clint said. Tony spun his head to glare at the man but it didn't look like he had moved. He was still meditating.

"You know what I meant!" Tony grumbled. Clint smirked and then opened his eyes and unfolded his legs.

"I don't know, he dismissed me before he spoke to Pete." Clint said, his smirk dropping slightly. "I bumped into Rogers when I had finished my paperwork. He said something about a Doctor Curt Connors and then Peter told him to leave and that's all I know."

Bruce looked up at Connors name.

"Why would Fury want to talk to Peter about Doctor Connors?" Bruce frowned.

"Wait, wasn't Connors that guy who turned into a lizard and then tried to do the same to New York?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, and he got beaten by this guy in spandex who calls himself Spiderman." Clint said. Natasha now looked up, making it obvious she was paying attention rather than rereading the same page several times, no matter how interesting.

"What do you two know on Connors?" Natasha asked.

"All I know is that he worked with another scientist years back on trying to reproduce animal instincts and natural evolutionary processes and so that they worked on humans. Much of his work was working with spiders that had been genetically altered so that their venom could cure illnesses and the self healing would help humans." Bruce said.

"Jarvis." Tony called out. "I want you to show every file you have on Doctor Curt Connors."

Holo-screens appeared around the sofas they were all sat at. Natasha stood up and looked at some of the pictures.

"This man had one arm?" She asked. The picture made it obvious, for some reason it still shocked her.

"Yeah, he was testing lizard organ and limb regrowth so that people like him could have their limbs back." Bruce explained looking over a recent article on the project. He had already read it but it helped to clarify some of the details.

"Looks like it didn't work out too well." Tony stated watching a video of the lizard climbing the OsCorp building.

Just then, the elevator opened and all those present in the room, looked through the holographic images and documents to see Steve step out of the lift. Steve looked over to them gravely and then turned slightly, as if expecting someone to be there. He spun around further and saw Peter still in the lift, staring at him. Peter pressed a button in the lift and the doors shut. The symbol above the door showed the lift going up until it stopped at floor seven.

Steve turned and saw the others looking at him through the screens surrounding the sofas. He sighed and walked forwards. Even Tony realised he shouldn't joke at this moment. Steve walked through a holographic newspaper report and collapsed onto the sofa. He ran a hand through his hair.

Clint crouched on a sofa opposite him, ignoring the images surrounding them.

"That bad, huh?" he asked. Steve only nodded.

"Was that a bruise on Peter's neck?" Natasha asked. Again, Steve only nodded.

"What happened then?" Bruce asked as he and Natasha took their seats again and looked at Steve. Only Tony didn't sit back down but he kept glancing in concern at Steve.

Steve sighed again and leaned forwards, his elbows resting on his knees.

"I'm not sure what you may or may not know yet." Steve started looking between Clint and Tony.

"I told them what you told me." Clint confirmed.

"Don't worry, I didn't hack into the cameras or anything." Tony said throwing his hands up in defence.

"Well, when I left Clint I went to Fury's office. He told me that a man called Curt Connors requested to see Peter, he knew him somehow. Fury wouldn't tell me how or why he knew Pete though, just that Peter had agreed to go and see him with the promise that I would follow when I could." Steve explained. "I was sent to this prison with too many protocols and defences. I could feel my strength falling from me, it had some anti strength walls or something because it took away a large portion of my strength."

"That's only installed in a few SHIELD prisons. There's that negative zone prison, Underwater prison but only in blocks two and four-" Tony started.

"That's the one." Steve cut in. "We were in underwater prison block two."

Natasha raised an eyebrow at Tony as if asking how he knew this. She didn't even have to ask. The document he was scrolling though had SHIELD: CONFIDENTIAL written on the top. Natasha just rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, I got there and there was a man guarding the room Peter was supposedly in. They wouldn't let me in the room and then I looked through the small door window and a man with one arm was lying across the table _chocking_ Peter." Steve said sadly. He looked down at his hands as if they were the ones that had hurt Peter. Hating himself for not getting there sooner and preventing whatever was upsetting Peter. He knew being chocked wasn't fun but he didn't think that was the only thing upsetting the teen.

"He was whispering something to Peter when I forced my way in. I heard the name George Stacy and the Connors said that Peter couldn't hide from him, he knew all about Peter, he couldn't hide."

Tony turned away from an OsCorp research document he had been scrolling through.

"Cap, look at me." Tony ordered. His face was completely serious. Steve looked up, confused and upset.

"You care about Peter, right?" Tony asked, still serious.

Steve just nodded.

"Even if you didn't you wouldn't let anything hurt a young civilian, would you?" Tony said.

Steve shook his head.

"So you're never going to let this creep come near him since he's not only a civilian but someone you care about. Steve, we're not going to let him get near Pete." Tony said honestly. Steve looked around the room and smiled slightly as he saw his comrades, his friends staring back at him and nodding in agreement.

"Right, enough of this sappy crap." Tony mumbled causing Steve and Clint to grin. Tony wasn't cruel or as egotistical as he let on when you got to know him.

They sat in silence, or stood in Tony's case, for a good while. The only movement was Tony scrolling through documents.

Finally, Tony gasped, drawing the attention of the other occupants in the room. Bruce stood up and walked over to Tony when the man made no move to explain what he was looking at. He just kept reading.

Bruce read through half the document before gasping himself. Tony turned his head slightly and noticed Bruce standing next to him for the first time. He nodded as if to say, weird right?

"Jarvis, pull up everything on Richard Parker." Tony ordered. The others looked shocked and confused at Tony except Bruce who watched as all of the documents, videos and images surrounding them changed except the one right in front of him which he and Tony had been reading.

Steve stood up and browsed a few of the documents.

"What do all of these mean?" He asked after five minutes of not understanding how Tony got to this topic.

Tony turned and looked at Steve.

"Doctor Curt Connors' lab partner eleven or more years ago was Richard Parker, father of our residential teen and your grandson." Tony explained. Steve stared at Tony before walking over and looking at all of the documents Tony had been browsing through.

None of them noticed how the lift was going up to the science floors and kept alternating between the three of them.

Natasha was the first to go off to bed, then Clint and Bruce. Tony excused himself to go and work on his latest suit.

The two relatives both stayed awake into the early hours of the morning before finally calling it a night and collapsing on their beds, neither knowing the other had stayed awake.

**Hi people, did you enjoy the chapter? Sorry for it being so short.**

**A couple of things to go over, I talked about Steve feeling weak when he got into the prison, Peter did feel it too and I will be mentioning that next chapter.**

**Second thing, I saw Amazing Spiderman 2 today, still dying inside about that (if you've seen it please review that you have so we can talk about it! I need to talk to someone!)**

**I will not be basing this story off Amazing Spiderman 2 but I might pick at elements such as the Doc Oc arms, rhino, maybe electro and green goblin. There is a chance I might have that bit with Gwen in it where she applies for Oxford but I won't stay true to the film about that bit, I'll mix and match as I see fit.**

**Anyway, please review; was Steve's response good enough? What about Tony or Clint/Natasha/Bruce?**


	16. Chapter 16

Peter watched as Steve left the lift. He didn't want to talk to anyone or explain what had happened, instead, he wanted to be alone, to think. Peter saw Steve turn around and looked at him, he pressed the close door button and then pressed the button for the seventh floor. He didn't look at Steve as the doors closed, he ignored them and waited until he could collapse on his bed.

Peter lay there thinking for a good ten minutes. Thinking of the whole day, thinking of what Connors had said, thinking of Steve and how he rushed in to save him.

Peter realised that, since leaving the prison he was feeling much better, and not in the sense of feeling happier but stronger. The wall must have been dampening my powers, he thought. But why had it taken leaving the prison to notice? In theory, it could be that it only took away a percentage of your strength causing said strong person to be weaker. Peter theorised. Yet he had noticed Steve standing straighter once they were out of the prison so maybe it took more from him. Peter didn't know how much Steve could lift, he hadn't looked into it but Peter knew his limit was just over ten tons of weight, Steve might have been less so if the power dampener took away twenty five percent of his strength Steve would be a lot weaker than Peter but it would be too small for Peter to notice.

Peter sat their contemplating this theory before his mind trailed back to what Doctor Connors had asked of him. To complete his research, give others limbs, help those with problems they didn't ask for, no one asks to be born without an arm or have a leg blown off. Peter could do that or reverse the serum. Take away any residual effects of the Lizard that were still with Connors. Maybe take away the lizard mindset, save Connors from himself. If he helped Connors than Connors would be fit and healthy again to work on his projects, then Peter could help him and it would be the same man he helped before!

Peter sat upright quickly, ignoring the dizzy spell. He would need all of the notes on the serum Connors had injected himself with. He would need a lab and he would need specific ingredients.

"Jarvis." Peter called out. After about an hour of not using his voice it croaked little.

"Yes sir?" Jarvis responded.

"Has Tony ever hacked into OsCorp?" Peter asked.

"Many times." The AI responded in what sounded like a sighing voice. Peter brushed it off, computers didn't have feelings.

"Has he ever downloaded the notes of Doctor Curt Connors?"

"Yes, shortly after Doctor Connors attacked the city as a giant lizard, mister Stark attempted to replicate his research and complete it."

"Did it work?"

"No, he missed spending his time tinkering on his suits so gave up after a week." Jarvis sighed again.

Peter cracked a small smile.

"So, Tony has the research and all of the equipment, right?" Peter asked.

"Yes, he keeps two mice as pets and that's all he got out of it."

"Jarvis, could you please direct me to this research. Is anyone in any of the labs?"

"The labs are empty and the research is accessible at any time via a holo-screen. Will you require a private area to work in?"

"Yeah, please. Is there anywhere that Tony or any of the others go?"

"There is a room next to lab 3 where Mister Stark puts all of his unfinished projects he _promises_ he'll finish later. He goes in their occasionally to put things away that he'll never touch again but otherwise, it is empty." Jarvis informed Peter.

Peter jumped up.

"Jarvis, can you please show me the research done by Curt Connors. Can you also list everything I'll need and put a tick by it if you have it." Peter instructed.

"Of course, sir." Jarvis replied. Seconds later a large holo screen appeared in Peter's room. Next to it was a smaller screen with a list. It had a gamma machine, lizard gene, hydrogen gas and many other machines or ingredients of either gases or substances. Somehow they all combined to make the formula running through Connors blood system.

Peter ran around all three labs, grabbing things as he went and putting them in the room of projects to never be touched again. He would always check with Jarvis if something would be missed. Most of the time it wouldn't be but if it would, even a little bit, Peter would leave it until he needed it.

Peter ran around from floor to floor grabbing things on the list and more which he thought would counteract already given effects to reverse the serum.

Peter ran himself into exhaustion. It was four am before he stopped and went to bed. He had written four pages of notes, compared his work to Connors notes and got anything he might need into the room he would work in. Finally, he lay down to sleep and was out like a light. His sleep was filled with nightmares and horrible thoughts. The Lizard ran through his mind and destroyed every happy memory that his mind tried to bring up. Finally, Peter was released from his prison of nightmares at around nine in the morning.

Peter got up and stretched, feeling his bones click into place. Peter went to the bathroom, showered and brushed his teeth. As the minty foam built up in his mouth he looked at his neck. Yesterday there had been a large hand shaped bruise on his neck. It was fading quickly. It wasn't as dark as it had been. Peter would have to cover it up for a while until it wouldn't be suspicious that the bruise had gone.

He found a turtle neck jumper hidden in his pile of clothing. He had never warn it but it had been a present so he had always kept it. Somehow it had travelled here with him and he was very grateful.

Peter went down to breakfast. Natasha was wandering around in a sports shirt and leggings. She looked like she had had water poured over the top of her. Clint came around the corner, also in sportswear, looking no better although he had a burst lip.

Natasha saw Peter as he walked in and eyed the turtle neck suspiciously but didn't say anything. Bruce was reading his paper as always and Tony was nowhere to be seen. Peter looked around, neither was Steve.

Peter grabbed the box of Cheerios, a bowl, spoon and milk and then sat them on the table where he proceeded to eat his breakfast in silence. Bruce looked up and eyed the teen. He could see the bags hanging from his eyes and see the purposeful cover up of his bruise.

"Good morning, Peter." He said causing Peter to jump a bit. He must have been deep in his thoughts. Bruce hid a smile.

"Morning." Peter grumbled back. Natasha raised an eyebrow at Bruce, silently asking 'is he always like that?'

Bruce looked at her a then discretely tilted his hand side to side which sent the message 'sort of, occasionally.'

"How are you this morning then?" Bruce asked out loud. Peter shrugged

"'m okay." He mumbled. Bruce raised an eyebrow at Peter.

"Want me to have a look at that bruise?" he asked.

Peter waved him off as he took another mouthful of cereal and then went back to his thoughts.

They sat in silence, well, Natasha and Clint sat on the sofa in the next room discussing each others fighting flaws, but otherwise, it was silent. And then the lift doors opened and that all changed. Tony stepped out with Steve who looked tired but he had showered. Natasha already theorised that Steve had gone for his morning run, showered, got call from Tony through Jarvis and was now disagreeing with the man.

"All I'm saying is it could be good for you. You know, extra protection, more weapons. You can keep the boy scout colours, the shiny shield but it'll make it better!" Tony said as they stepped out of the lift.

"Tony, thanks for the offer but no, I don't want a new suit, especially a metal one. I'm perfectly happy in the suit I have." Steve argued.

They walked forwards. Tony was too into the discussion to acknowledge others in the room but Steve waved at Natasha and Clint and received nods. They walked into the kitchen and Steve waved again. He got a smile from Bruce and a nod from Peter.

Tony kept talking the whole time, noting the pros of creating a new armoured suit for Steve. He was only brought out of his thoughts when an eraser hit him dead centre on the back of his head. He spun around and glared at Clint who was still talking with Natasha. The only difference was the slight elevation of the side of his lip.

"Seriously Katniss, an eraser?" Tony glared.

"Sorry but your nattering was driving me crazy." Clint shrugged, his smile increasing slightly.

"Alright, enough, it's too early for an argument." Steve butted in. The both crossed their arms and glared at each other like two children who had just been told off.

Steve grabbed an apple and sat down. He stared at the turtle neck but didn't say anything. He could tell Peter wanted to be left to his thoughts.

Tony, on the other hand, wasn't as subtle.

"So Pete, what's your plan for today." Tony asked as he slumped down into a seat.

"Um, homework I guess." Peter said shrugging.

"Boooooring" Tony droned. His face then lit up. "Why don't you show the old man that photo album you found?"

Steve looked at Peter in surprise and Peter looked back dumbfounded. Why had he not thought of that, how had he forgotten it?

"I'd love to see it if Peter wants to show me." Steve said honestly. Tony's grin then had a glint of evil in it.

"While you're at it, why don't you invite your girlfriend over?" he suggested. He was definitely enjoying himself. Steve raised an eyebrow at Peter, silently asking if Tony was pulling his leg or Peter actually had a girlfriend. No one said anything, it was very awkward.

"Well?" Tony said, "she should come over and meet your new family, I'm sure she wants to meet him!"

Peter was about to say something when his phone rang. He completely forgot it was in his pocket!

Peter pulled it out and saw that the caller ID said Gwen. His face must have given it away because Tony burst out laughing.

Peter answered the phone and showed Tony the middle finger. Tony only laughed more. Peter got up to leave.

"Hi Gwen." He said. Tony stood in the doorway blocking his path. Peter tried to slip around him but it wasn't working.

"Just ask her." Tony said in an unnecessarily loud voice.

"Sorry, I can't hear you, an _idiot_ is talking too loud." Peter said causing Tony to scoff.

"Peter, what is going on over there?" Gwen asked. "What do you need to ask me?"

Tony kept repeating, "just ask her" until, finally, Peter did.

"Miss Stacy," Tony called loudly, "I want to ask you over for dinner but Peter's being rude. Do you want to come over?"

"Is he being serious?" Gwen asked.

"Yes." Peter grumbled. Peter finally pushed past Tony and started walking towards the lift. Tony just laughed.

"Do you want me to come?" She asked.

"Yeah, sure." Peter mumbled.

"Pete, what's wrong. Why are you angry? Do you want me to come or not?" Gwen asked.

"Gwen, everything's fine, I swear." Peter said. Tony scoffed in the background. "I would love to see you but only if you want to come over. If not I'll go to yours."

There was a moment of silence.

"When should I come over?" Gwen said.

"Come around three. I want to discuss a project with you." Peter said. Gwen didn't question him. Normally when he brought up random things like a project that she didn't know they had, it meant Spiderman.

They said their goodbyes and Peter looked at the nearest clock. He had a few hours to kill.

"So...?" Tony asked, prompting Peter.

"She's coming over for dinner. Please don't be a pain." Peter begged. Clint burst out laughing and Peter could hear Bruce laughing in the other room. Finally the lift arrived and Peter went up to his room.

Steve finished his apple and then decided to head upstairs. How did Tony know about this but not him? He would have normally assumed that Tony hacked into some record somewhere and found out but Peter didn't seem surprised that he knew and he had avoided eye contact with Steve. So Tony had found out through legal means. It looked as if he had told Tony, so why hadn't he trusted Steve?

Steve called the lift and was surprised when he saw Pepper inside.

"Hi Steve." She said cheerily.

"Good morning, Pepper." Steve said as he walked in. Steve was silent.

"Steve, which floor are you going to?" Pepper prompted when Steve didn't say anything or hadn't pressed any buttons.

"Oh, floor seven please, Jarvis." Steve said.

"Of course, sir." Came the automated voice.

"What's wrong?" Pepper asked sympathetically.

"Did you know Peter had a girlfriend?" Steve asked.

"Oh no, how did you find out?" She asked. It wasn't an oh no you shouldn't know that, it was oh no, you found out the worst way possible, didn't you.

"Tony." He said. Pepper sighed.

"I spoke to Peter about it. I told him to tell you and I seriously think he was planning to, but in his own time." Pepper said looking into Steve's eyes.

"But why would he tell Tony and not me?" Steve said. He looked like a puppy that had been kicked. Pepper actually laughed though causing Steve to be incredibly confused.

"He didn't tell Tony." She laughed. "He was in the room when Peter got a call and he accidentally put it on loud speaker. She screamed at him through the phone. She had heard about his house burning down but he didn't speak to her for a week."

"So Tony found out by accident?" Steve clarified. Pepper nodded.

"Bruce too. Bruce was there as well. He said that after Peter finally got away from Tony, Tony did his normal thing and found out everything about her." Pepper said. Steve breathed a sigh of relief.

They finally noticed that they had arrived at floor seven. Steve said thank you to Pepper for her reassurance and then went over to Peter's room. He knocked.

"Come in." Peter's voice shouted through the door. Peter opened the door.

"Hi Peter." Steve said trying not to be awkward.

"Oh, hey Steve." Peter said blushing slightly. He felt embarrassed about the whole phone call thing.

They sat in silence.

Finally, Peter spoke up.

"Did you want to have a look at the photo album?" Peter asked.

"Yes, good plan." Steve said and they both moved around the room. Peter grabbed the old album with Peggy in it and brought it to his bed. He and Steve went through the pictures. Steve would talk about how pretty Peggy looked, even as she grew older. He would say a few stories like how he met her and her reaction when he came out of the machine that had changed him.

"...and the first thing she did was automatically try to touch my chest." Steve laughed.

"Seriously?" Peter grinned. "So all I have to do is get myself some serum and the girls will all fall for me?"

Steve laughed some more.

"I thought you already had a girlfriend." Steve said.

"Yeah, I do, and even if I had the serum I'd still fall for her. If I didn't I think she'd kill me!" Peter exclaimed causing Steve t laugh again.

"You should hear what she did when I got my shield, the first thing she did was shoot at me." Steve said with a mocking look of fear on his face.

"She sounds terrifying." Peter laughed.

"She was," Steve said with a fond smile. "She was terrifying and beautiful and I loved her."

They kept going through the picture and then when they got to Ben and Richard Peter told all of the fond stories he had of them. He told of all the wonderful moments he remembered with his parents. He said any childhood stories Ben had told him of the brothers and he told Steve about his life with aunt May and uncle Ben.

"I wish they were still here." Peter said sadly.

"So do I, Pete." Steve said embracing Peter in a one armed hug.

"I'm sorry about not telling you about Gwen, I was going to." Peter insisted.

"Don't worry, Pepper told me how Bruce and Tony found out. I'm guessing they weren't the best of reactions so you wanted to wait before you had to tell someone else." Steve assumed. Peter nodded a confirmation.

"Also, Peter. I'm sorry for not getting to you sooner yesterday." Steve said sadly.

"It wasn't your fault." Peter said firmly.

"I know, I just want you to know, what Connors said yesterday about finding you and coming after you, I want you to know that I won't let that happen, no one in this tower will." Steve said honestly.

Peter looked into his eyes and saw only truth. Peter nodded. In thanks and Steve gave Peter a proper hug. Thanked him for showing him the book and got up to leave.

"Hey Steve, why don't you keep the book." Peter said and he tossed the book over. Steve caught it and thanked Peter again before walking out.

"Sir," Jarvis's voice called out. "There is a miss Gwen Stacy in the front entrance."

"Don't tell Tony!" Peter called out as he ran out of his room. He almost bumped into Steve as he went.

"I'm sorry sir, it's a bit too late." Jarvis said.

Peter apologised to Steve without stopping. He ran to the lift and saw as the numbers went down, down, down. Probably carrying Tony to meet Gwen. Peter ran to the stairs and took them four at a time. No one was watching so it didn't matter. He couldn't just jump through the gap running through the middle of the stair case because someone might see him if they're using the stairs. Peter got to the second floor when he almost ran into Gwen. He stopped himself just in time and enveloped her in a hug.

"Hi Peter." She said, blushing slightly. He then noticed Pepper walking with Gwen, smiling.

"I thought I would save Gwen from Tony since I knew he would try to get there first. I also know that Tony doesn't take the stairs." Pepper said with a sly grin.

"Thank you so much, Pepper!" Peter cried out.

"Is Tony really that bad?" Gwen asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes." Peter and Pepper said at the same time. The difference was that Pepper was grinning and Peter looked serious.

"Anyway, I'll leave you two alone and find Tony. I'll keep him occupied." Pepper said, her smile turning from sly to something that made Peter shiver with grossness.

Gwen and Peter started walking up the stairs once Pepper had gone.

"So, Peter, what's this project you were talking about and why are you wearing a turtle neck?" Gwen asked. For the next two floors Peter explained what had happened the day before with Doctor Connors. Peter didn't look out of breath at all but by the end of it Gwen was both physically exhausted and mentally too.

"So which are you going to do?" she said breathlessly. "Cure him or find the cure for others?"

"Cure him. Once he's better I can work with him to improve his work. I don't think I can do it without him." Peter explained. Peter went through all of his theories he had been through last night and in the early hours of the morning. Gwen would occasionally give pointers or notes.

By the time they got to the seventh floor, Peter was giving Gwen a piggy back and she had stopped breathing heavily.

"First, I want you to meet Steve. If you meet anyone in this tower first, other than Pepper, I want it to be Steve." Peter said, stopping outside the door that would lead to his and Steve's floor. Gwen nodded and then squealed slightly. Peter raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry but I'm about to meet Captain firkin' America because my boyfriend is related to him!" Gwen explained. Peter shrugged and lead the way through the door, Gwen followed holding Peter's hand. Steve wasn't in the living room area.

"Okay, this is our floor, well, Steve's floor but I live here too." Peter explained.

"You have your own floor?" Gwen asked, exasperated. This was amazing!

Peter took her on a tour of the room, showed her the kitchen and his bedroom and told her of some of the other floors. Peter had told Gwen about most of it before but seeing made it easier to believe.

Steve's door opened once they came out of Peter's room and Steve stepped out. Gwen subconsciously moved closer to Peter.

"Gwen, this is Steve, my great grandfather – " Steve looked a little sheepish at the phrase. " – and Steve, this is Gwen, my girlfriend." Peter introduced them.

"Hi, it's a pleasure to meet you." Steve said, holding out a hand. Gwen shook his hand and relaxed.

"Peter's told me so much about you, it's great to finally meet you." Gwen smiled. Steve raised and eyebrow at Peter who just shrugged in response.

Steve talked with them for five or so minutes before wandering off to go and see the others. Peter grabbed his note book with all of his theories in it and too Gwen to the roof. It was wonderful. The glass walls kept the wind away leaving only the warmth of the sun. They sat there until the sun set, discussing different theories, hypothesise and debating the best way to go about these theories.

Finally, after eight o'clock Jarvis's voice came through the floor.

"Dinner is ready." Jarvis said. Gwen screamed and jumped up. Peter had gotten used to it so he rolled around, laughing and giggling. Gwen kicked him numerous times shouting, "It's not funny!"

Peter finally led Gwen downstairs, silently praying that no one would be an idiot at dinner.

When they reached the normal food floor Peter saw Natasha and Steve discussing something in hushed voices. Steve looked angry at something. When they saw Peter walk in the discussion was dropped. Natasha walked over.

"Hi, I'm Natasha, you must be Gwen." She greeted. Natasha and Gwen shook hands and said all of the pleasantries: how are you? I like your such and such. It's a pleasure to meet you.

Natasha then showed the way to the table. They said hi to Steve again and then Peter introduced the others.

"Gwen, this is Bruce Banner." Peter said.

"Mister Banner, I am a huge fan. I can't say I beat Peter but I've read you research several times over." Gwen said shaking his hand. She was smiling like a fan girl.

"Nice to meet you too. I must say, you two are the first teens or people under forty actually that have had an interest in my work." Bruce grinned.

"This man over here is Tony Stark." Peter said once they had finished talking. Tony got up and walked over to Gwen.

"Nice to meet you Gwen, you sound a lot nicer when you're not shouting." Tony said grinning. Gwen blushed profusely. Pepper, who had been sat next to Tony before he got up, cleared her throat slightly and Tony dropped his smile slightly.

"Anyway, why don't you tell us what you were doing on the roof?" Tony asked quirking his eye. They all sat down and Peter noticed someone missing.

"We were working on a school project." Peter said with a shrug. He had become a decent liar since becoming Spiderman.

"What? Nothing juicy?" Tony whined. Tony let out a small yelp but no one knew why. Pepper just started eating some chicken chow mien.

Dinner was quickly interrupted when Clint fell graciously out of the air vent. Gwen did a small just but that was it.

"What? No screams?" Clint asked sounding upset.

"Sorry Clint. It looks like the parlour trick is getting old." Natasha said with a small smile.

Clint grunted and walked over to Gwen.

"Clint Barton, nice to meet you." He said.

"Gwen Stacy." She replied.

Dinner was Chinese take away. Bruce and Gwen kicked off immediately, Clint taunted Tony but Tony only grumbled responses. Peter was sure it had something to do with the fact that Pepper was sitting next to him and last time he checked, she was wearing very pointy stiletto shoes, they'd probably cause a lot of pain if dug into a person's foot.

Gwen mentioned her apprenticeship at OsCorp causing a heated discussion between Tony and Gwen over which was better: Stark Industries or OsCorp. Peter was very proud that Gwen didn't back down. Gwen did admit that she applied for an internship at Stark Industries but was declined. This started a discussion on what she wanted to do, what her plans were, so on and so forth. By the end of the evening, she had a position at Stark Industries if she wanted and Tony's respect.

After dinner Peter suggested walking Gwen home. He grabbed his coat from his room (and stuffed his suit in an overly large pocket.

"Peter, I could drive her much quicker and it would be much safer." Steve protested once Peter came out of his room.

"Steve, seriously, we'll be fine, I wanted to hang at her house for an hour or two. I'll text you when we get there, I swear." Peter said. Steve sighed giving in and the two of them left.

Peter stayed to his word and texted Steve as soon as they passed the intimidating door man. Peter then bid Gwen goodnight, donned his costume and set out for an evening patrol.

I need to do this more often! Were his only thoughts as he swung out f the window and off into the night.


	17. Chapter 17

**Dun dun dun! I reappear! I know last chapter was no ones favourite but you wanted Gwen to meet them, so Gwen met them! Also, to those who pointed out Peter's 10 ton strength or the mix up with the eraser, thank you. More then one already told me about his weight lifting capacity, I just got muddled up. Thanks again!**

Peter swung from building to building, searching for trouble, anything to interest him and get the adrenaline pumping. Sadly it was being a slow night. Then again, he'd only been out for twenty minutes. He had told Steve he would be back in an hour or two. It would take him ten minutes to get back to the Avengers Tower, two minutes to change and he's back to nerdy Peter Parker. That meant he had around an hour and a half to save some lives, get some action and have some fun.

Ten more minutes past and Peter actually thought that the criminals were sleeping in tonight. There was no one causing trouble! Seriously! No convenient store robbers, no break ins, not even a car alarm!

Peter was about to call it a night after a very quick patrol when he heard a noise that – finally – suggested some action. A siren, the first one so far! Peter looked down and saw that it was a fire truck. He used his enhanced sight to look around the city for even a whiff of smoke and within a second he saw it. Peter swung, charging along, and found that it was a five story house burning. The whole neighbourhood had come to watch but it didn't look like anyone inside the house had come out yet. Peter looked at the house, quickly assessing the best point of entry before swinging into the nearest window. The house was ablaze, pictures on the walls melted and burnt and the history of the family seemed to be demolishing with the building.

"Hello." Peter called out. "Is anyone in here?"

There was no answer. Peter quickly and agilely crept around the house, doing his best at not getting burnt. He went through the corridors and found an assortment of bedrooms and bathrooms as well as a TV room. This was not the house of a poor family, nor did they look particularly rich. Peter stopped when he looked in one of the rooms. It was a child's room. He could make out blue walls that were now turning grey and a mix of teddies that seemed to be turning to ash. He walked into the room, making sure that no one had hidden in a cupboard.

"HELLO?" he called out again. This time he got a response. There was a loud cough coming from a room across the corridor.

Peter sprinted over, still being careful where he stepped. The door frame leading into the child's room collapsed just as Peter escaped it. There was no time to think about that though, someone needed help. Peter looked into the new room. It was small and empty, it looked like the owners were planning on redecorating. They would definitely need to now since there was a large piece of flaming ceiling cutting across the room. Peter looked around for the sound of the cough and saw an elderly man and lady huddled into a corner with two little boys. One looked to be around ten, the other looked around five.

Peter's spider sense tingled and he jumped out of the door way as some ceiling collapsed in the corridor. The elderly woman looked up in fear and alarm as she saw movement. Peter froze. The dirt and rubble made the woman's hair look like a greying black colour and her face was filled with fear and concern. She looked so similar to Aunt May. Was this what May looked like in her final moments, terrified?

"Help." she coughed, bringing Peter out of his thoughts. Peter nodded and dived across the room, avoiding the burning ceiling lying on the floor. The elderly man looked up at Peter and Peter saw hope in his eyes. He gulped quickly, shaking his head of any thoughts of his previous guardians, and then assessed his situation. There was a family of four on the floor, the nearest window was on the other side of the burning floorboards and none of them looked like they could make that jump alone.

"Is anyone hurt?" Peter asked crouching down. The youngest child jumped in fear having not registered Spiderman's presense. Peter calmly stroked the back of the boy's head in comfort.

"No, no, we're fine. Just get the boys out!" The old man pleaded. "Save my grandchildren!"

Peter nodded.

"Hey you two. My name's Spiderman." Peter said calmly, drawing the attention of the two children. "Now, I'm going to help you get out and then I'm going to come back for your grandparents, alright?"

Spiderman watched as the ten year old nodded eagerly, desperate to get out of the burning house. The younger child just clinged to his grandfather tighter.

"I'm going to need you to grab hold of my neck and I'm going to get you to that window," Peter informed them, pointing to the window. "and I'm going to need you to be strong. Okay? You have to hold on real tight."

The older boy looked as his grandma who looked back and nodded before kissing the boy on his head. The old man ruffled the boy's hair with a large hand in a form of comfort. The boy then grabbed onto Peter.

The younger child wasn't being so cooperative. He clung to his grandpa, desperately trying not to let go. He had tears in his eyes that streamed down his dirtied face. The old man kissed the child on his head before starting to pry the young child off of him. Peter took this as a sign to grab the boy. The young boy started screaming and struggling in Peter's arms. He sprayed some webbing onto the boy so that he wouldn't fall off with all his squirming.

"Shh," he mumbled softly. "I'll come back for them. I promise, once you're safe."

With that, Peter leaped back the way he came, avoiding the fire surrounding him and looked out of the window. There was fire licking up the walls and no firemen to look after the boys once they got down there. Peter looked back at the old couple now huddled together and grasping each other for dear life. They watched through the flames. Peter shook his head to tell them, no good. I need to find another way. Without waiting for any response he jumped out of the room, avoiding the flames and making sure they didn't hurt his two passengers. He saw a window in the child's room. It was a risk but he had to take it. He dove through the flames that encased the doorway. Quickly checking that none of the flames had caught, Peter went over to the window. He found it tricky to open with two children clinging to him but he managed. He watched as the smoke in the room poured out into the open air and the siren's blasted loudly around the building. Peter could see firemen pointing up and several running over.

"Boys," Peter said. "I'm going to slowly lower you down, I need you to stay with the policemen when you get there."

"Okay." the older child said, loosening his hands. The younger child, although reluctant to go with Spiderman at first, now clung to him like a life line.

"Shh, it's okay. Once you're down, I'm going back for grams and gramps." Peter reassured. The boy just shook his head.

"Danny's afraid of heights." the older boy said. Peter looked at Danny who seemed to be looking at anything but the window.

"Alright Danny, I'm going to send-" Peter looked at the older boy as if guessing his name.

"Tom." The boy prompted.

"I'm going to send Tom down first. Once Tom's feet hit the ground, he's going to call up and tell you he's okay. Then, now you know it's safe. I'm going to lower you." Peter finished. Danny nodded slightly.

Peter stuck some webbing onto Tom's back and lowered him as quickly as he dared through the window. He let go of the webbing when he saw a fireman grab the boy and help him to the ground.

"I'm alright Danny!" Tom called up. Danny quickly glanced out the window.

"Okay Danny, it's your turn. Just shut you're eyes and it'll be over soon." Peter said. He was running out of time. He could hear the building falling to pieces from the inside, the floor could give at any minute. Still, Danny did not let go. Peter quickly assessed the room and webbed a cuddly toy over. It looked the oldest yet it was the least burnt. It had been sitting on the bed which was obviously flame retardant.

"Danny, is this your toy?" he asked, holding up said item. Danny nodded, a small smile came on his lips and he grabbed the toy, squeezing it hard. It was a green lizard toy with a worn down tail as if it had been chewed.

"I want you to shut your eyes and tell me every about this lizard, okay?" Peter said. Danny nodded and screwed his eyes shut.

"His name is lizzy, short for lizard." Danny started. Peter slowly attached some webbing to the boy and forced the boy to let go. Danny just kept talking.

"He's been my best friend for all my life and..." Danny was half way down but he stopped talking, his breath hitched and Peter sped up the process.

"Keep talking." He shouted.

"and – and – and my mummy gave him to me." Danny continued. His voice was cracking. Finally, two strong firemen got him and helped him the rest of the way. Peter was gone within a second of knowing Danny was safe.

Peter shot through the flames and found the elderly couple loosing consciousness where he had left them. Peter got over to them and tried shaking them.

"Save my wife." the man mumbled in a daze. His eye's barely opened. Peter could hear a pipe crack or something. It didn't sound good. Without a second thought he grabbed them both, forgetting the link between old people and bone problems, hauled them one on each shoulder and ran out of the room. He got to the window he had dropped Danny and Tom through and started slowly sending the old lady down in the same manor. He heard the pipe crack again and dove through the window with the old man still in his arms. The room exploded behind him. He swung to the ground using a street light as his webbing holder and left the man with some paramedics that had just arrived. Peter turned to make sure everyone was alright and saw one of the men who had been helping carry the elderly lady trapped by a fallen piece of building. Peter ran over and pulled the debris of the fireman, and the man wriggled out.

"Cheers Spidey." the man called as he hobbled off. Some of his fellow firemen and women ran over to lend a hand or cheer spiderman. Of course, the rest of them were manning the hoses and attempting to shrink the flame.

Peter gave a mini salute before swinging off to finish patrol.

He found two muggings on his way back and ended them quickly. He felt emotionally and physically drained after the fire.

Peter stopped at an ally three blocks from The Avenger's Tower and changed back into civilian clothing.

He shook his head violently and tried to throw of the smell of smoke and burning the laced him. Thankfully he had thought to leave his clothes and bag away from the building so they didn't smell too bad, just of normal boy smell.

Peter strolled back to the tower and wandered through the doors to the lift. He really didn't want to bump into anyone, even if he'd gotten the ash off of his face.

"Hey Jarvis." Peter mumbled. "Seven please."

"Of course, sir." Jarvis responded. It was a quick journey with no stops or people getting on.

Peter looked around and saw that Steve wasn't upstairs just yet. Peter walked over to his room, turned on the light and collapsed on his bed.

"Would you like me to inform Captain Rogers of your arrival?" Jarvis asked.

"Sure." Peter mumbled against the pillow. Peter threw of his cloths, changed into pyjamas, abandoned his bag and snuggled under the covers.

He was just drifting off when there was a small knock on the door. Peter was too tired to answer. The door slowly opened and Peter could hear light breathing. He started drifting off again when he heard the light switch click off and a quiet whisper of "Night, Pete." from the door. It was Steve. Peter drifted off to sleep.

Peter was up early the next morning. By early, around four in the morning. His sleep had been plagued by nightmares. All he could dream of was his Aunt May and when the house burnt. The look of terror on her face. At moments, the old man he had saved was replaced by his Uncle Ben. Peter could see the disappointment when he failed to save either of them. Both had died because he was too slow, because he was not around, because he had left the house!

Steve didn't say anything when he got up at six, ready for a run, and saw Peter on their sofa, reading a chemistry book.

School was uneventful and Gwen chatted happily about dinner from the previous night. She could tell Peter didn't want to talk but he also didn't want silence so she kept talking. Lesson's were boring and uneventful and his swing home in his costume was too. There wasn't even a mugging on his way back.

Peter stopped off for an apple and to see if anyone was about on the fifth floor but it was empty. He went to the seventh floor which was also empty and did his homework. It was only five by the time he was done so he went out again.

Today had so much more action. Peter found an attempted rape, a hostage situation, two robberies and a drunk idiot almost falling out of a window.

He was swinging through the city, listening out for any more disturbances when his phone rang.

It was Steve.

"Hey Steve." Peter said, stopping on top of a building.

"Pete, where are you?" Steve asked. He was trying to sound calm but Peter could tell he was freaking out a little... just like Aunt May used to do.

"Just wandering around." Peter said offhandedly.

"Wandering around? Peter, it's almost ten o'clock! Jarvis said you left at five." Steve pointed out. Peter glanced at his watch before realising it was covered in his costume.

"Yeah, well..." Peter thought quickly trying to come up with an excuse, "there's just so much to see in this city. I just lost track of time."

"Okay." Steve said, not sure if he believed Peter or not. "Well, when can you be back? I'll start some dinner."

"I'll be back in about fifteen minutes, give or take." Peter said.

"Good. I'll get something started." Steve said before hanging up.

Peter sighed before swinging off. He needed to get further in this stuff for Connors but he wasn't sure he could do it. Oh well, he had to try!

When Peter got back, he went to the seventh floor. Steve was standing by the table where two plates of chicken, rice and veg were cooling down. Steve and Natasha seemed to be having a heated argument that stopped almost instantly when they saw Peter.

"Hi." Natasha said. Steve shot her a warning glare. She said nothing more.

"Evening." Peter said, trying and failing not to raise an eyebrow.

"Hey, why don't you go and wash your hands, Peter." Steve suggested. His tone made it sound like more than just a suggestion. Peter nodded and threw his bag into his room before going into the bathroom and getting the feeling of sweaty latex gloves off of his hands.

When he went back into the kitchen area Steve was sitting down and the doors to the lift just shut as Natasha left. Peter spared a glance to the lift.

"Fighting about anything interesting?" Peter asked offhandedly.

"No." Steve said a bit more forcefully than needed. "So, how was your day?"

Once dinner was over, Peter helped wash up and then snuck into the private lab he had been working in the previous day. It was around one when he went to bed.

The next two days were just as uneventful. Steve disappeared on Wednesday though, apparently he had to see Fury about something.

Peter was bored on Wednesday. He was sure he was on the right path with his research on Doctor Connors. He didn't have any blood or tissue to work with but he theoretically modified lizard DNA with human DNA and based his hypothesis on this.

The day droned on, double English and double maths will do that to you, no matter how much you enjoy the subject.

Peter was ready to go out on patrol once he said goodbye to Gwen but he stopped when he got to the school gate. Standing by the gate was none other than Clint Barton. He leaned against one hell of a nice sports car looking around. To anyone else he looked bored, but Peter could tell he was alert.

Peter walked over to him

"I thought I declined Tony's offer of a chauffeur." Peter said sarcastically.

"Funny, kid. I don't exactly like pick up duty either. Get in the car." Clint said glumly.

Peter did as he was told and sat in silence as Clint drove off.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on or leave me in suspenseful ignorance?" Peter said in a bored voice. Clint cracked a smile.

"Fury wants to see you." Clint said. "And he sent me to get you! Why mean? I mean, Natasha's probably more able to take Steve on in a fight. Plus his morals of less likely to hit a lady and so on."

Peter snorted at Clint's ranting.

"I'm not kidding, Pete. You're great whatever has been adamant about you not seeing Fury! He's going to kill me for dropping you off!" Clint argued. Things suddenly became clear to Peter. He now understood why Natasha and Steve were arguing constantly or glaring at each other.

"Why doesn't he want me to see one eye?" Peter asked. Clint snorted.

"I thought Tony was bad enough, now the both of you are coming up with names for him!" Clint then went serious. "He thinks Director Fury will send you back to see that Lizard guy. He doesn't want you to get hurt. And why are you so calm about this?"

Peter shrugged and they sat in silence. The drive took less than an hour. Clint led Peter took Director Fury's office and left once he was dismissed.

Fury was looking out of his office window.

"Take a seat mister Parker." he ordered.

Peter did as he was told. Fury sat opposite him.

"I want to know what you learnt from Connors." Fury stated. Peter wasn't sure where to start. "What did he want?" Fury prompted.

"He wanted help. I was right, he's got two people in his brain. Himself, and the lizard. He wants the lizard gone. He asked me to either finish his research or try and help him by creating an antidote." Peter said. His voice wavered a little bit, still nervous around Fury and the memories of his visit to Connors.

"Why ask you?" Fury pushed.

"I don't know. Maybe because I've seen his research before. Maybe he trusts me. I really don't know." Peter said honestly. Fury could see that question stressed Peter out.

"Have you decided what you're going to do?" Fury asked.

"I'll try and create an antidote for Connors. Once he's sane he can continue his research without the fear of the lizard part of him trying to take over." Peter explained. Fury nodded.

"Is there anything you need? Anything I can supply you with?" Fury asked. Peter thought for a moment.

"Can I get a sample of Connors' blood and some skin cells?" Peter asked. Fury nodded and sent a quick email.

"Where are you working on this?" Fury asked.

"I've found a deserted room which Tony barely uses." Peter said. Fury raised an eyebrow.

"Why don't you want the others to know?" he asked. Peter looked around nervously. "Peter, why won't you tell the others."

"I – I'm not impressed with myself for helping him. I helped create the Lizard, I don't want them to think any less of me for creating a monster." Peter mumbled. It sounded sort of pathetic out lout but Fury didn't laugh. He just looked calmly at Peter.

"I think they'd forgive you if they found out you helped to stop him." Fury said quietly. Peter's head shot up. He looked straight at Fury, fear evident in his eyes: he knew.

Peter forgot how to breath. He just stared at Fury.

"I listened to the feed in the room. Talk about a spider gave it away. Also the talk about George Stacy, another hint. It's my job to know these things." Fury said. He saw Peter wasn't going to say anything. "I have two questions for you. One, why won't you tell Steve at least? And two, what are your intentions as Spiderman?"

Peter took a deep breath and thought out his answers.

"It's not that – I do – I just – okay, I trust Steve, I do. I don't know, I don't want him to worry, I don't – just. I don't know." Peter stumbled with his words.

"Would you stop if Steve found out and didn't approve?" Fury asked.

"No."

"But you'd like to do it with his approval?"

"Sort of, probably."

Fury just nodded and dropped the subject.

"And my second question?" Fury asked.

"I want to help people. I just want to help." Peter said firmly. Fury nodded. He was about to continue when there was a _very_ loud knock at the door. The person didn't wait for any sign of being allowed in, he just came in.

Steve looked pretty mad.

"Sir, I directly said that I did not want you talking to Peter." Steve stated, glaring at Fury. Peter looked over at Steve and gave a small glare.

"Surely it is Mister Parker's decision whether or not he talks to me. I hear you didn't even tell him I wanted to see him." Fury respond calmly.

"Director Fury, we discussed this-"

"Captain Rogers, wait outside until I'm done talking with Mister Parker." Fury ordered. Steve looked taken aback. He didn't expect Fury to fight back. He looked at Peter who looked slightly angry and slightly upset towards Steve. He nodded and left, shutting the door loudly behind him.

"Don't worry, the doors are thick enough even his enhanced hearing won't pick up a thing." Fury said as Peter glanced back to the door. "Back to the matters at hand, you can't hide your research for Connors forever, especially with Tony about. You also can't hide Spiderman forever. My suggestion, concur whatever fears you have on the matter and tell one of the Avengers. As long as you stay not being a threat, nor do you endanger yourself or those around you, no one will find out through my lips. On the matter of Doctor Connors, I'll have someone bring your request to you discreetly."

Peter nodded and thanked Fury and then stood up to leave. Fury called to him just before he got to the door.

"Parker, I know you might be pissed at the man now but Steve is your family, he was doing what he thought was best for you, try not to be too hard on him." Fury advised. Peter nodded and left. Steve attempted to apologise for keeping this secret from Peter but the boy kept quiet. It was an awkward journey back, some SHIELD agent dropped them off at the tower and neither said a word. Steve gave up trying to talk to Peter after five minutes of awkward talking. They went straight up to their floor, number seven and Peter went directly to his room.

"Peter." Steve called out before he shut his door. "I really am sorry."

Peter shut the door and got on with homework.

**Long time no see. I finish school forever next week (ahhhh) so I should have more time to write until I go travelling. Yes sir, a month of freedom with only my laptop and then travelling. I'll do as much as I can before travelling.**

**For all those going through A Levels GCSEs or other horribly evil exams or coursework, good luck! And what are you doing reading this? Get back to revision!**


	18. Chapter 18

Peter sat in his room mopping. It was actually quite a boring task. Just sit there and mope. Don't talk to people and mope. Be bored and mope.

He was angry and upset at Steve. He had admitted to Fury that he trusted Steve. He wanted to trust him with his biggest secret, he wanted to get close to the man and he wanted to be friends with him. All that being said, the man kept something from him! He didn't tell him that Fury wanted to see him. He didn't tell him that his arguments with Natasha were about him. He just decided that Peter shouldn't get involved. Why? Did Steve think he was too young? That Fury was a bad influence? That he'd get hurt? Peter wondered what his reaction would be when – if he found out what Peter did in his spare time.

It was probably a completely unreasonable hate towards Steve but the man had taken it upon himself to shield Peter from a man who could, essentially, make creating the antidote for Connors a lot easier. Not that he knew that of course. Peter sighed, got changed into his Spider-man costume, bid farewell to Jarvis and jumped out the window.

* * *

><p>Steve slouched on the sofa thinking of what he had done to make Peter so angry at him. Seriously, all he had done was stop him talking to Fury. What was so important that Fury needed to talk to the kid anyway?<p>

Steve's thoughts were disturbed when he heard Jarvis speak loudly to him.

"Sir, Mister Stark requests your presence ."

"Why?" Steve moaned.

"Apparently he wants a drinking partner and Mister Banner is not being accommodating." Jarvis responded.

Steve groaned. He thought about declining it and then thought against it, Tony would probably come up here and get drunk instead. Or he'd find some way to annoy him later.

Steve got downstairs only to see Tony trying to pass Clint and Natasha a drink. Both seem to decline with an air of annoyance. It was probably the hundredth time he offered.

"Stevie!" Tony called when he heard the lift close behind him. The others nodded in acknowledgement. Steve responded in kind.

A drink was shoved in his hand and the conversation that must have been happening before he arrived, resumed.

"I'm just saying, if we add some repulsers to the jet that are linked to my suit then I can fire while everyone else focuses on other tasks like not crashing the jet!" Tony said unnecessarily loudly.

"And what happens when you're unconscious or not in the fight?" Clint asked rolling his eyes. "I don't know how to control them and they use more power than a missile. Why not just strap another one of those on instead?"

"How about more armour instead of weapons?" Natasha said trying to be heard. Obviously this wasn't the first time she mentioned it. "What good is a jet with weapons when the jet is hit?"

"I agree with Natasha and I agree with Tony." Bruce stated. Tony stuck his tongue out a Clint. "However, I think Clint has point about energy usage. If we could find a way for the jet to refuel whilst flying then a repulsor beam would be the perfect. It's smaller and lighter that missiles and more compact."

"We could try a photosynthesis styled engine!" Tony shouted, again, unnecessarily loudly.

"You mean, take in the CO2 and deposit oxygen?" Bruce asked sceptically.

"Yeah, I've been working on a prototype for my suits. THE TREE SUIT!" Tony exclaimed.

Steve wasn't sure if Tony was already drunk or just bored.

"Just please don't paint it green." Clint begged. Bruce snorted.

"At least the big guy would have a friend." Bruce laughed.

The conversation continued in this manner. Steve occasionally put in some input but otherwise stayed silent. It was almost eight in the evening when the conversations stopped and they started discussing dinner. Tony was determined to get Chinese takeaway and the others were too lazy to cook or argue.

"Jarvis, hey Jarvis. Can you call Pete and ask if he wants anything specific?" Tony asked.

There was a momentary pause.

"Mister Parker is not here at the moment. He has gone out." Jarvis responded. Steve gawked.

"Cap, why didn't you tell us? Could have saved my voice." Tony grumbled.

"You would have found another way to waste it anyway." Clint muttered under his breath. Bruce smirked.

"I didn't know." Steve said feeling unsure.

Natasha sighed and rolled her eyes. Steve looked so unsure of himself. It was almost pathetic, she thought. Obviously they were disagreeing about something and suddenly Peter goes out by himself and he takes it to heart. It was unnecessary.

"Jarvis, did he say when he'd be back?" Natasha called out.

"No, ma'am."

"I'll phone him and ch-" Steve started.

"What are you two fighting about?" Natasha asked. Everyone sat in silence while the two of them had a staring competition.

"Jarvis! Order the norm from the Double Dragon and then keep quiet. I want to hear the gossip!" Tony instructed before leaning forwards intently. Steve glared at him before realising that everyone was listening in.

"He seemed angry at me when I went to get him from Fury." Steve stated. Tony laughed at him.

"He found out that Mister Pirate wanted to see him through someone other than you!" Tony laughed.

"And? Last time he talked with Fury he was strangled! I mean, didn't you see the bruising on his neck? What if that happens every time they meet?" Steve asked furiously.

"Okay, I would like to point out two things." Natasha said, looking Steve in the eye. "Number one, you coddling him is probably going to translate as not trusting him. If he wants to see Fury, let him. He might have his reasons. If he trusts you, he might tell you."

Steve sat in silence. He was not coddling Peter. He just... he... Fury might manipulate him! Even in Steve's head, that sounded irrational.

"Secondly, has anyone else noticed how Peter's bruise on his neck has gone?" Natasha pointed out. They all turned and looked at her in shock.

"He's been wearing turtle necks for the past few days." Bruce pointed out.

"Yes, I know. But I also know that when he left with Gwen Stacy on Sunday, the bruise was practically gone. And I saw him rub the back of his neck on Monday, there was no bruise at all when he moved the shirt's neck down." Natasha informed them.

"Maybe he put make up on it." Clint suggested in an off-handed fashion. Natasha glared at him.

"No, if it was make up he wouldn't bother with the turtle neck." Steve pointed out.

"Maybe it was badly done make up." Clint suggested.

"Could it be possible that the serum Steve was given was passed on?" Bruce asked Tony slowly, as if thinking the theory through in his head.

"You're more of a genetics genius then me." Tony pointed out.

"Well, it might be true. Steve, have you noticed any strength enhancements or anything?" Bruce asked.

"Not really." Steve said thoughtfully. "But even with me it takes at least three days to get rid of a bruise that dark."

"Sir, the food has arrived." Jarvis said.

"Send it up Jarvis." Tony said before standing up and stretching. "Look, tomorrow, we can do a blood test and sort all this out. Now, let's eat!"

Steve sat for a moment longer before pulling out his phone. He started searching for Peter's number when a small hand covered the screen.

"Leave him be tonight. I warned you that he would find out and take it badly." Natasha said when Steve looked up.

"What if he's in danger?" Steve asked urgently. Natasha raised an eyebrow.

"Steve, relax. He's fine, don't worry." Natasha said. Now it was Steve's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Fury's probably watching him through CCTV or something."

"How can I tell him why I did what I did?" Steve said with a sigh.

"I'll talk to him." Natasha said. Steve gave her a smile of gratitude and they walked over to the table where Bruce quietly ate some chicken chow mien and Tony and Clint argued about weapons.

* * *

><p>Peter had left with no goal in mind. He did his usual rounds. He checked the alleyways and he found a nice tall building to stare at the city from. The sun was setting and the lights started to turn on. Peter listened out for any cries for help.<p>

He heard one in the sound of police sirens. Lots of them. Peter listened to his senses and swung down, looking for the cause of the noise.

It sounded like it was just over the next tall building. Before the scene came into Peter's view, there was a loud crashing sound followed by screams and more crashing.

The scene below showed a pile up of cars all around a turned over armoured vehicle. Peter allowed himself to fall as quickly as possible when he realised that three more squad cars were about to join the crash load. He tactically released his webbing to slow their collision impact without causing the passengers any damage.

Next was crowed control. Peter finally finished his decent and landed on a street lamp. He yanked people away from the cars using his webbing, even if they were trying to help.

"Hey! We want to help!" one man cried out.

"Sir, please, keep away, let your friendly neighbourhood Spiderman take a look!" Peter replied. The man muttered something but didn't approach the cars again.

Once they were out of the way, he got to the mess of cars and started ripping doors of hinges. There were two police cars in the mess and three civilian cars, not counting the three squad cars he had prevented from crashing. Peter then swung over to the main cause of the accident, the overturned armoured vehicle. Due to the strength of the vehicle, there was very little damage done to the exterior. He checked the driver's seat to find that the seat was empty. Not only that, it looked like the thing had been melted! There was a hole burnt through the ceiling leading through the concrete! Peter ran to the back and pried open the sealed doors. Steam and heat came rushing out. It was the same result, there was a melted hole in the upside down ceiling! Only two people were in there now.

"Excuse me, sir." Peter called out. There was no response. Peter scaled the wall to avoid the floor. He was worried that the heat from making that hole would burn him since the ceiling was metal – well, it was technically now the floor...

"Sir?" Peter said as he got closer. It was incredibly dark in the container. Peter was almost at him when he smelt burning. Not the burning of smell metal makes but cooking, as in, burnt flesh!

Peter looked closely at one of the men and realised that his face was unrecognisable. It had been burnt off in the shape of a hand! Peter jumped to the other man and saw this man was burnt on the neck. Exactly how it would look if someone had been strangling him with their hand on fire...

Peter wanted to be sick!

He heard the police mobilising outside and was brought out of his thoughts. He didn't know what had done this and he really wasn't in the mood to find out!

Checking the ceiling wouldn't burn him if he touched it, Peter poked his head through the melted hole and looked around. There was a third burnt body under the hole where the driver's seat was. Peter guessed this must have been the original driver. His neck looked to be angled strangely and Peter could see burn marks in the little light there was.

Other than that, Peter could see nothing. There was no chance he would find these people, whoever they were. He'd leave that to the police. Peter pulled his head out of the hole and found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. There was a police officer at the other end of it.

Instinctively Peter jumped back, out of the line of fire.

"Officer, put that gun down! I didn't do anything!" Peter cried.

The man seemed hesitant. He didn't put his gun away but didn't directly point it at Spiderman.

"What happened?" The man asked, looking at the burnt bodies.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Peter said. "There's the driver down the hole, he's been burnt too."

"What could have done this?" the officer said to no one in particular. He was staring at the hand shaped burn mark on one of the men.

"Someone sick." Peter mumbled. The officer nodded. Peter took that as his cue to leave. He didn't notice as the officer snapped to attention when he swung off, he just wanted to get away.

The accident had happened near Gwen's flat. Peter decided to give her a visit. He could do with a good old rant.

He swung down and looked in the window. He curtains were partly closed and Gwen lay, reading on her bed. Peter knocked on her window. He was almost a little sad that she didn't jump. He used to enjoy popping by just because she would jump when he knocked. Obviously, she was used to it by now. Gwen lay still for a second, listening to her surroundings. A moment later she got up and opened the window.

"Hey Spidey." She whispered with a smile.

"Hey." Peter said yanking of his mask. He smiled back. Gwen's smile dropped.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"What? Nothings-"

"Pete, don't lie."

Gwen glared at Peter before leading him into the room. She sat on her bed and Peter sat on her desk chair.

Peter told her about seeing Fury and how Steve was keeping it from him. He told her about how angry he felt and she sat and listened.

"You done?" she asked. Peter nodded. He had nothing more to say. Gwen burst out laughing, trying to keep it quiet in case someone came by.

Peter stared at her, unsure as to why she laughed.

"Pete, you're too sensitive." She laughed.

"Oh come on! You'd be upset if someone you were beginning to trust lied to you!" Peter exclaimed. Gwen stopped laughing and gave him a look that said 'seriously'.

"You want to talk to me about lying?" she asked incredulously. "Where shall we start? 'Hey Gwen, I'll be late for science, can you tell Sir', 'hey Gwen, I'm fine, can we go on a date some other time', 'hey Gwen lo-"

"Okay, okay, I get your point."

"Peter, you have given him no reason to believe you can look out for yourself. The guy thinks you're a normal teenager. No, wait, he thinks you could be a china doll in comparison to him." Gwen stated.

"Yeah, but how am I meant to trust him with my Spidey secret if I can't even trust him to be straight with me? I mean, he'll probably ban me from ever putting on spandex again!" Peter claimed, throwing his hands about.

"I don't know, maybe he can relate." Gwen suggested. Peter stared at her like she had two heads. "Seriously Peter, have you read nothing about the man? He joined the army after being rejected loads of times. He wanted to help. He was too young, too small, asthmatic and to top it off, he had not muscle what so ever."

"But-"

"Peter, the man might see you in him. You both have the most important thing, a good heart. You both do what you do to protect people. I'm not saying he'll see it at first but truthfully, I think he'll appreciate it later." Gwen stated.

Peter and Gwen chatted for another half hour before Peter left. He did a quick sweep of the city before ending up on his bed, completely exhausted. He got changed, hid his costume and lay on his bed, contemplating what he should do next. He could work on his serum for Doctor Connors but it might be better to wait for the DNA first. He could-

There was a knock on his door. Peter hoped it wasn't Steve.

"Come in." He called grumpily. No matter what Gwen said, he could be grumpy at Steve for as long as he liked.

The door creaked open and in walked Natasha. She had a slim, metal briefcase in her left hand. Peter jumped up to greet her.

"Fury told me you were expecting this." She said formally. Peter nodded and took the briefcase from her. He then shoved it under his bed. When he turned around, Natasha was still there.

"Um-" he started.

"I hear you're pissed off at Steve." She said bluntly. Peter sighed. Natasha walked over to his desk and sat down. "I warned him it would happen, that you would find out and be grumpy about it."

"Why was he so against asking me even knowing?" Peter asked, realising Natasha probably wouldn't go away until they talked.

"Fury's manipulative. I guess Steve just didn't want you caught up in his world. He wants to keep you safe." Natasha replied.

They sat in silence.

"What does Fury want from you?" Natasha asked finally.

Peter sat there contemplating what to say. He could admit it all and be done with the secrecy... Well, some of it. Or he could say he was helping Fury. That wouldn't really help on the 'I swear Fury isn't manipulating me' front.

"I- um," Peter stuttered.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, just know, secrets don't last long and you can save yourself a lot of hell if you admit them instead of others finding out." Natasha said. Peter nodded and watched as she stood up and headed to the door.

"One more thing, Pete." She said. "The old Cap's a little rusty but he's a good guy and he likes you. I know the rest of us do too. Whatever you're doing, don't do anything dumb and if you need help, just ask."

Peter nodded once more before waiting for Natasha to leave.

Ugh! Now he felt guilty about being rude to Steve!

And if I keep being grumpy at him, Peter thought, I'll just feel even more guilty!

Peter decided to delay sleep and work on his serum with his newly acquired gift from Fury. It had exactly what he asked for; the blood sample, the skin tissue and a note?

In scrawny handwriting, tucked behind one of three vials of blood, was a small note.

Thanks Peter. Your dad would be proud.

CC

Peter smiled before hiding the note in his school bag. He then navigated his way around the building to his secluded lab with the DNA.

He felt a yawn coming over him after what seemed like an hour of working. Peter looked at his watch, it was nearly two am! He crept to the door and was going to leave when he heard movement on the other side.

"Jarvis!" Tony shouted. "Bring me the specs for the green suit. I want to start outlining the weapon specifications."

"Surely that counteracts the good your suit supposedly does for the environment." Jarvis replied.

"Since when did I programme you to argue back?" Tony asked rhetorically. Peter watched through a crack in the door as holo screens appeared in front of Tony.

"Sir, might I suggest working at a more reasonable time of day?" Jarvis asked.

"No you may not." Tony muttered while scanning his work.

"How about when you are less intoxicated?" Jarvis suggested.

"Why is this any different from any other time I've worked like this?" Tony asked the ceiling, prying his eyes from the screens.

"I'm merely suggesting this since Ms Potts is back from her business trip in the morning." Jarvis pointed out.

"She'll kill me if she thinks I've been up all night!" Cried Tony.

"Should I hide the specs, sir?" Jarvis asked. Tony stared at the ceiling, he looked taken aback, unsure if he had heard a hint of amusement in Jarvis's voice or not. He let it go with a shake of his head.

"Yes, yes. And if Pepper asks, I was not here at this time, I was in bed." Tony said.

"Of course, sir. Also, Director Fury would like to speak to you in the morning." Jarvis said.

Tony grunted in response and then wandered off.

Peter sat by the door he hid behind, listening for any sound of Tony. He decided to count to 100. But what if Tony came back after he'd finished counting, what if he'd forgotten some-

"Mister Parker, Mister Stark is gone, you are able to leave." Jarvis's automated voice said, ringing loudly through the empty room.

Peter jumped up in fright.

"Any chance of some forewarning next time?" He asked sarcastically.

"Sorry, sir." Jarvis said.

"Anyway, thanks Jarvis." Peter said as he quickly walked through the maze of work tops.

"Goodnight, Mister Parker." Jarvis responded before shutting the lights off in the room.

* * *

><p><strong>not my best chapter ever, I'll admit. I know it feels like a filler but I need to get a few things in for story progression.<strong>

**1. Who do you think was in the van?**

**2. Did Natasha reach expectations for those who asked for her to have a one on one with Peter.**

**3. Was this chapter totally rubbish or is that just my imagination **

**(answering 1-2 is fine)**

**sorry to those who'. Reviews I did not respond to. I thank each and every one of you who reviewed. And 1000 followers - people, when I saw that I almost cried with joy! Thank you**


	19. Chapter 19

It was dark in his room when Tony woke up. That could be due to the blinds being shut or the fact that it might actually still be dark outside. Whatever the reason, Tony thought it was way too early to get up.

However, with the idea of Pepper coming home and finding their room a pigsty along with the fact that he really needed a pee, Tony rolled out of his warm, comfortable bed and groaned as he fell off. Thankfully his fall was softened by the dirty clothes he had worn over the last few days.

"mrivish..." Tony mumbled into the floor. There was no response. Tony sighed before rolling his head out of what felt like the trousers he wore yesterday.

"Jarvis, can I have some light please!" Tony called out. The command was followed by a long yawn.

"Of course, sir." Jarvis responded and the lights in the room turned on, brighter than ever. Well, at least, that was the way it felt to Tony's hung over head.

After a very satisfying morning toilet visit, Tony set to work on clearing up his room. This consisted of two piles; stuff that may or may not be clean but is going to be washed anyway and stuff that shall be worn today. With this effective cleaning method underway, Tony had his room _practically_ spotless within a record time of three minutes.

Within ten minutes Tony was dressed and on his way to have breakfast with anyone up at this insanely early hour. What shocked him the most was that Clint, Bruce and Peter were sitting down and eating breakfast while watching the television. Tony did a double take and looked at his watch. It was seven thirty am! His mental clock told him it might have been around five.

"Morning." Peter said when he heard Tony approach. Clint looked over and nodded since his mouth was full. Bruce didn't look away from the screen. Tony shrugged it off and went to the coffee machine.

"_... General Ross has been denied another attempt to increase his Hulk Buster team however..._" the news reporter said.

Tony quickly looked at Bruce as the news lady went on, talking about Ross's previous encounters with the Hulk and the efforts that are still in place to stop him.

Clint was glaring at the screen. Since Tony could only see Bruce's back, all he realised was a bit of muscle tension.

"Um, Bruce, are you okay?" Peter asked. It was then, Tony noticed that Bruce was gripping the table with bone shattering strength. Once Peter had spoken, Clint grabbed the TV remote and quickly turned off the television and Bruce left his angry, trance like state.

"Sorry Peter, what were you saying?" Bruce asked, sounding a little breathless.

"Your eyes went a little green and you were all tensed up. Are you okay?" Peter asked.

Bruce rubbed his eye as if trying to get rid of any green colouring.

Tony walked around so that he could see Bruce for himself. The green in his eyes was quickly fading. Tony looked at Bruce, asking if he wanted to explain or if he wanted Tony to explain. They would have to tell the kid sometime. Before either of them could speak, Clint beat them to it.

"Pete, why do you think Bruce is at the tower?" Clint asked. Peter looked thoughtful and then shrugged.

"I just thought, with him and Tony being friends, he stays here to use the equipment." Peter shrugged.

"Huh! So all this time I thought we were science bros and you've been skiving off me!" Tony exclaimed in mock offense. Bruce gave Tony something between a small smile and a glare.

"I wish that were the case." Bruce said sadly. "However, it's a little more complicated than that."

"Complicated, how?" Peter asked. Tony sat down with his coffee and looked at Peter as if analysing him.

"Think about it. Who are the Avengers and who have you and haven't you met." Tony asked.

"Um, well, I've met you guys, so I haven't met that lightning guy or the green guy." Peter said looking around the table. They were all staring at him like he was so close to whatever answer he was supposed to be looking for.

Tony did a rolling hand motion, signalling for Peter to continue talking.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that the lightning guy has blonde hair so I'm guessing you're not him." Peter said. Clint looked like he wanted to slap himself when Peter seemed to be at a standstill with his thoughts. Peter took this as a sign to continue. "Um, I guess that means, wait, what? Are you insinuating that you're that big Hulk guy?"

Tony burst out laughing.

"Took your time!" Tony laughed.

"But... but I saw that big green thing on the TV and you are _not_ that big." Peter pointed out.

Peter looked so confused, even Bruce and Clint smiled.

"Peter, you saw my eyes go green. Imagine that happening to my entire body and it expanding." Bruce said. Peter's scientific mind was now working overtime.

"Peter, I suggest you stop trying to come up with reason on how that's possible." Laughed Clint. "From what I remember, school is hard enough to get through without causing your brain to melt before you've even started."

Tony saw Peter relax slightly in his seat.

"Anyway, no telling anyone and go to school. We'll see you later." Tony said breaking the tension. He rubbed Peter's hair affectionately and then waited for him to leave.

"Are you sure you wanted him to know?" Tony asked finally.

"He was going to find out anyway. There wasn't much I could do anyway without causing him to ask too many questions." Bruce pointed out.

They were about to say more when Jarvis spoke.

"Mister Stark, Director Fury wants to speak with you." The AI said.

"Buuuuut Jarvis." Tony moaned.

"Director Fury says that this is a case you will want to investigate. He says to mention Extremis." Jarvis said.

Tony instantly straightened up.

"I'll take the call in my office." Tony said robotically before leaving a confused and concerned Bruce and a curious Clint.

Tony practically ran to his office. He used the stairs so that he wouldn't have to stand still.

"Jarvis, get me Fury." Tony ordered.

Instantly, a large holo screen stood in front of Tony showing the live feed of Director Nick Fury. All stutter and stammer from the hangover vanished.

"Stark, I thought you'd like to be the first to know that Extremis is not fully terminated." Fury said. There was no greeting, no pleasantries, just the facts.

"I thought your guys were rounding up the loose ends." Tony pointed out. This whole subject made him angry, anyway, why was Fury bringing it up now?

"We were transporting three more infected with the drug to a secret facility where we've been administering the anti-serum. They escaped." Fury informed Tony in a monotone voice.

"Show me any footage you have!" Tony demanded.

CCTV footage of a large armoured vehicle in a police pursuit replaced Fury's face. The footage showed how the vehicle lost control and spun over, how cars crashed into it and then how three police cars were stopped from crashing by some sort of webbing. Spiderman was then caught on camera. The feed stopped there and Fury came back onto the holo screen.

"I had my men check the area, there were two holes leading into the sewers below. The melted through the metal and the concrete." Fury said.

"That Spider guy, did he face them?" Tony asked. Fury picked up a hint of concern in his voice.

Did Tony know who Spiderman was or did he just fear for anyone going up against these _things_? Fury asked himself.

"No, they were gone, Spiderman left the scene quickly." Fury stated. Tony looked at him in confusion.

"Why?" he asked.

"It might have something to do with the fact that the guards there were with had hand shaped burn marks on them." Fury said.

Tony nodded understandingly, he wouldn't want to investigate either.

"Do you have any leads?" Tony asked seriously.

"All I can give you is the position of the holes and however long the melted floor goes on for showing footprints." Fury replied.

"That'll have to do. I'm going to check it out. Got any more information for me?" Tony asked.

"These three were ex-military. The best. Two worked in tech, excellent at hacking. The third was a weapons expert. I'll have their files sent to you. They've been avoiding us for a while." Fury explained.

"And now you lost them again." Tony pointed out spitefully.

"Take Rogers with you, he could do with a mission and if you found it hard to take down one man powered by this drug, you might need help taking down three." Fury said and then he signed off.

"Jarvis, is Steve in the building?" Tony asked, already quickly walking to the stairs.

"Yes, sir. He has just arrived back from his run."

"Tell him not to bother with a shower, just get suited up and meet me by the roof. And Jarvis, prepare mark 54 for me."

"Sir, after you initiated the New Leaf protocol, you no longer have a mark 54." Jarvis pointed out.

"Well then, how many do I have?" Tony asked, suddenly forgetting all the work he had done on his suits.

"You have two, sir." Jarvis stated.

"Fine, get the mark two ready." Tony ordered.

Thirty minutes later saw Iron Man and Captain America walking through a sewer. Well, Captain America was walking and Iron Man was flying over the water.

"How's the idea of my improved Captain America costume sounding now?" Tony asked.

"Very funny, Stark." Steve said sarcastically.

"I bet your super senses are picking up all those little extra smells." Tony laughed.

"Can we just focus on what we're supposed to be doing." Steve more stated than asked.

"Touchy touchy, Cap." Tony mocked.

"Tony, just be quiet and tell me when the footprints disappear." Steve ordered.

Tony had been using a new feature in his suit that enabled him to see clearly through most forms of liquid for shapes. Right now, he was looking through the murky water below him for footprints that had practically been melted into the floor.

"They disappear in the next 50 metres." Tony said. "I'm scanning for any heat signatures nearby but I'm getting nothing."

"Is Jarvis still running a face recognition through CCTV?" Steve asked.

"Yeah but still nothing. We haven't had anything higher than a 48% match in the last five minutes." Tony sighed.

Steve could tell Tony was on edge about this whole thing but the man didn't want to talk about it so he didn't push.

They walked in silence for hours. Tony had finally decided to walked next to Steve after a while.

It was around four that they climbed out of the sewer and agreed to go and relieve some tension. This tension relief came around in the form of crime fighting.

For some reason, two gangs decided that it was the perfect time to have a gang war using Uzis, machine guns and other loud, dangerous and deadly guns.

All in all there were around thirty to forty men. Around ten of them had scrammed the moment they heard an exaggerated throat clear coming from an alley way. They took one look at the one and only Iron Man standing next to the great Captain America and they ran.

The rest decided to try and be macho, not that that really did them any favours. Iron Man took off first and starting doing straight into the action, head butting people out the way. The metal helmet bashed into stomachs, winding them on impact. Tony then took a detour and collects fallen guns so that no one could try and make last stand shots.

With a common enemy, the two gangs had teamed up.

Steve watched as Tony dived straight in. He would have watched in amusement as the men fell for a while longer but couldn't due to the fact that people had decided to start shooting at him.

With perfect aim and precision, Steve threw his shield towards the gunmen and watched as the each, unwillingly, released their weapons. Knives were brought out, a mad scramble for lost guns happened and people started to charge towards Steve.

One by one he fought them. He kicked and he punched. He released all the pent up anger of being stuck in a damn sewer all day.

Tony was doing the same. He ordered Jarvis to dumb down the power of his repulsors and started feeling the weight of everything to do with Extremis leave his system with every gang member who fell.

Within minutes, the number of gang members still standing had halved. They had encircled Steve meaning he had to be more aware of his surroundings. It didn't matter if a kick went wrong or his shield was too far to the left. It would hit someone else.

Steve was about to conduct a heel, knee flip kick, obviously not with all his strength, when he felt himself being yanked out of the crowed. At that exact moment he heard another gunshot and saw the man he was about to kick lying dead. The man who had been standing behind him had a smoking gun in his hand. Steve landed unceremoniously on the ground and spun around.

Crouched on the wall behind him was the masked vigilante Spiderman. Spiderman gave him a small salute. It took Steve a moment to register what the hell had just happened, that this man had saved his life!

Steve gave a small nod of gratitude. Spiderman then turned and yanked the gun out of the gang members hand before jumping into the fray and webbing hands and feet.

Spiderman didn't stay long, more, he made the fight easier by disabling the gang members and then left to do whatever the hell he did in his spare time. Well, that was what Tony thought. He stopped fighting and hovered slightly above watching Spiderman and Captain America rejoin the fight. They worked quite well together, Tony thought. Spiderman would use some sort of webbing and bind their hands and then kick them behind him to where Steve stood ready to give them a final punch.

What they didn't know was that Spiderman hadn't gone. He hid in the darkness of an alleyway, observing the fight. For a great grandpa, his gramps fought pretty awesomely.

He would kick and punch and fight with excellent precision unlike Peter who fought mostly out of instinct from his spider sense.

Finally, the last man fell. Tony's face plate lifted off.

"Feeling better now, Cap?" Tony asked.

"I would like somebody I can hit a little harder but that was fun." Steve replied. "Anyway, lets head home, I've finally got my apology to Pete ready."

Tony laughed and slung a metal arm over Steve's shoulders.

"That's what they all say." Tony laughed. "And then they get there and become a bumbling mess."

Quietly in the alleyway, instead of waiting to be spotted by one of the older heroes, Spiderman decided to run back home. He wanted to see if Tony was right. And yeah, he would forgive Steve.

Once Spiderman was out of hearing range, Tony turned towards Steve and was about to make a joke when he noticed a patch of blood circling Steve's shoulder.

"Crap! Steve, you've been shot!" Tony cried out.

Steve looked down at his shoulder and realised that he was feeling a numb pain. When the adrenaline wore off that was going to hurt madly.

"Someone must have got lucky." Steve muttered to himself. "Most bullets barely penetrate my skin."

"Come on. I'm flying you home!" Tony said before grabbing Steve bridal style and flying him out of there before he could protest.

Steve just grumbled in resentment.

**Only two people guessed Extremis. Bravo to you two :D and to others who reviewed, thank you very much!**

**To the reviewer called Nobody**

**You asked for writing advice in a review a couple of chapters ago, I'm sorry I forgot to write a response. First off, get an account to make it easier to respond to reviews and chat to you. As for advice, I still ask people for advice and don't exactly follow what advice I give to others.**

**Even if you don't plan an entire story, vaguely plan things in your head. Write notes somewhere of important things like a big building and the number of floors it contains and what's on them. It's just so you don't get confused. Same with days and dates. I'm constantly going back and checking which day this story is on roughly.**

**Proof read (which I'm not very good at doing for my own work)**

**Try not to add unnecessary things in to make the story longer. Only add them if they are important for story development or character development.**

**If you write a fanfic of a character being stronger/better than they are in the media you got them from (e.g. book, comic, film) then you need to make the villain stronger too otherwise they can be beaten easily!**

**Hope that helped **


	20. Chapter 20

**Hi, sorry for the late update. I'm currently travelling Europe, I had hoped to have this chapter done but oh well, you have it now.**

**Please thank Dog1056 for telling me to get on with it. I didn't realise how many people actually liked it, so to all those favouriting, following, reviewing and reading, thank you. **

**Quick note: PEOPLE We need more Enemy (by Charlie Higson) fics. To people who read zombie books, books with little romance (okay it's mentioned and stuff but oh well) please read them and help expand the fandom! If you do, I will love you forever.**

Peter rushed home as quickly as he could. It took him exactly fifteen minutes to swing near to the Avenger's Tower, quickly change into civilian clothing and finally get back to his room. It would have been two minutes quicker if he hadn't had to make the detour of swing back to where he left his clothes. He thoroughly regretted leaving them in a dumpster. Someone had decided to drop some form of sticky drink – orange Fanta by the colour and smell of things – all over a nice pale blue shirt. Sadly, that probably wouldn't wash out easily.

Peter changed shirts, not wanting any awkward questions to come out about why he had a pee coloured stain on his shirt if and when Steve finally arrived at his room. Thankfully he had avoided both Pepper and the other Avengers whilst going to his room. That made life sooooo much easier.

Peter lay on his bed, relaxing from a boring day at school and an interesting experience as Spider-man. It still got him how well Steve had fought. And for all his talk, Tony was a very serious fighter, it looked like his moves were tactically planned and the punches were laid with precision and an accurate amount of force. That way it would seriously injure but not kill anyone.

_Probably Jarvis calibrating the odds_, joked Peter in his head.

Peter rolled on his stomach and slumped on his bed, begrudgingly realising that he had left his costume strewn over the floor. Peter, very unenthusiastically, crawled to the floor, attempting to grab the offending items of clothing without his feet leaving the bed. When he used to do this before the years of amazing powers of sticking to things and balance, Peter would have failed miserably and probably, loudly and painfully, slumped onto the floor. Now he successfully grabbed everything (with a little help from the web fluid that came in handy so often) and shoved it all unceremoniously into the hidden safe beside the bed.

Peter attempted to do a similar tactic with his school bag. Sadly, this time, it failed. With his web slingers in the safe and his bag on the other side of the room, Peter had to actually _move!_ He got up and walked over to his bag. He carefully ignored the homework, telling the tale all teens do _I'll do it later_ and rummaged for his phone. After thirty seconds of no success Peter dropped to the floor and emptied his bag. Still, there was no sign of his phone.

_Crap!_ Peter thought. His head buzzed with all the places he had been and all the places he could have left it. _Kitchen, no. Bathroom, no. School, no._

The list went on. He retraced his steps from the previous day. He had promised Gwen that when he got back he would text her. She knew he had been up late and wanted to make sure he wasn't out when he was half asleep.

After at least two more minutes of mindless rummaging through his room Peter stopped dead in his tracks. He knew exactly where his phone was... it was right next to Tony's lab, where he was working on the Lizard cure.

"Jarvis." Peter said quietly.

"Yes sir." Jarvis responded.

"Is anyone up in Tony's lab?" Peter asked, practically frozen in his tracks. He knew that the texting could wait but if it went off and someone was in the nearby vicinity he was _doomed!_ And if he forgot to get it and left it until later or tomorrow he was _doomed!_ Gwen would fry him alive.

"Do you mean the one situated next to your _non-existant_ work place?" Jarvis questioned robotically.

"Yeah." Peter replied, holding his breath as he waited for an answer.

"No sir, Doctor Banner is currently refilling his tea and conversing with Miss Romanof while Mister Barton is training. Mister Stark is currently outside of the building along with Captain Rogers. Miss Potts has just arrived in the lobby." Jarvis responded and Peter finally exhaled. He dashed out of his room and to the lift. He pressed the going up button and watched as the numbers tortuously slowly showed the lift moving up. Peter ignored the lift and took to the stairs. He could run quicker than the lift to get to the right floor anyway.

* * *

><p>Two minutes away Tony flew towards the tower. He would have gone faster but he feared the speed of the air on Steve's wound might agitate it. This was thoroughly illogical though since Steve reassured him that he was fine and hid the wound from the offending air particles by keeping one hand pressurising it.<p>

"Sir." Came Jarvis's British voice. "It seems there has been a breach of security in the tower. Someone is shutting of my from the hard drive."

Tony's head immediately snapped into action.

"Jarvis, transfer all data files in danger and yourself into the suit once you've alerted the others." he commanded.

He watched as a loading bar appeared on the right side of inside his helmet a moment later. Tony watched as Jarvis fully uploaded himself into the suit and out of the tower's system along with other important files.

Steve had of course heard Tony's response, but even with his excellent hearing, he had not heard Jarvis's part of the conversation. He looked up at Tony questioningly.

"We might have to wait a little longer to get that wound checked. Someone's in the tower." Tony said seriously.

Steve looked in the direction of the tower, calculating how long it would take to get there. He estimated just over a minute.

"I can drop you off on the next building and come get you when it's over." Tony suggested half heartedly. He knew what response was coming next.

"Not a chance. It's not that bad." Steve protested vigorously. "Ask Jarvis who was in the tower."

"Jarvis?" Tony questioned knowing that the automated butler had heard.

"Miss Potts, Miss Romanof..." Jarvis started listing off. Tony repeated them using first name basis.

Steve cut them off quickly.

"Was Peter in the Tower?" he practically begged. He knew all but Pepper could defend themselves and she was probably safe with the others. Peter might have been in his room or something.

"Yes, sir." Jarvis responded. Tony relayed the message.

Tony then engaged in a conversation with Jarvis about who the attacker was. Sadly Jarvis wasn't able to maintain much information before someone found the towers power source and started fiddling with it enough to cause a problem for Jarvis.

* * *

><p>Inside the tower, Peter started lifting and moving things in his little work space, so far there had been no success. He slid to his knees and started hunting for his phone under one of the desks.<p>

Suddenly, Jarvis's voice rang through the building.

"Intruders in the building, please evacuate. Intruders!" he said. Peter looked up, idiotically imagining that Jarvis was standing in front of him, thankfully he didn't lift his head high enough to hit the table above. It was still confusing talking to the air.

"Jarvis, who's intruding?" Peter asked. There was no response.

"Jarvis?" He called again.

The lights in his little room went down. Little did he know that this was happening throughout the tower.

Peter cursed loudly before trying to stand up in the dark. Thanks to his spidey sense he avoided a collision between his head and the table above him. He put his hand unnecessarily on the table beside him to steady himself. His finger tips brushed against a solid object. It wasn't paper, it was his phone! Peter almost hit himself for being so idiotic and not checking more thoroughly. He grabbed at it and turned it on, he used the light from the phone to guide himself forwards to the door. Peter knew he could have made it there without the light but he preferred doing this the quick and easy way.

Peter pushed at the door. It didn't budge, he pushed a little harder. Sadly, the door used electricity to open. Something of which this building currently did not possess. Peter banged his head on the door fruitlessly realising how stupid he was, once again. The reason this door would not open was because it was re-enforced so that if something happened in the lab only the lab would be damaged. You know what that made this room that had suddenly become Peter's prison? Sound proof. No one would hear his phone, he would not be doomed if it went off, he was an idiot! Peter weighed his options. There could be some dangerous villains lurking in the room next door or through the corridors of the building. He could stay safe in here and wait it out. Then again people might wonder where he was and then find him and wonder what the hell he was doing.

_Okay,_ thought Peter, _that's a definite nope._

Idea number two, he broke out of here using his super strength and then went looking for the others. As much as he wasn't ready for anyone to find out his connection with Spider-man, he was also not willing for someone to get hurt because he wanted to keep it a secret.

Peter pushed on the door. It didn't budge. He pushed even harder, there was very little difference. He could only slightly hear the hints of metal beginning to strain.

_Then again, _thought Peter, _it could just be me causing two hand printed dents in the door._

Peter immediately shuddered at the thought. Last time he had seen hand prints, it had been on those dead bodies yesterday. How they had been burnt into those men, killing them. Peter ignored this train of thought as much as possible and went back to pushing at the door. The more he pressed the louder the straining noise sounded. He pushed with all his strength but that still wasn't enough. He was almost there though, he was sure of it. He walked back as quickly as he could, stopping when his sense picked up an object behind him, most likely a table. Peter prepared himself and then ran at the door, using his arm as a cover for his face and ribs.

The door and Peter fell with a large bang. How he was going to explain the door or anything inside, he had no idea.

Peter quickly inspected the room. It looked how it always did, clean and sterile. The only difference was the lights that were usually on, brightening up the room, were off. Peter quickly went to the wall sized window and saw a group of people outside the tower, there were about three of them, just standing outside. Peter didn't know if there were more surrounding the area or if these were even the intruders. They didn't look like much.

Peter abandoned the window and ran to the lift. Like all other electrically powered objects in the building, it was offline. Peter ran towards the stairs just as they opened and three men walked through the door. They didn't look at all out of breath from the stairs. They had military cropped hair. The one at the back had blonde hair and a young face, he looked the most uneasy, especially when he saw Peter. The next two had dark brown hair, however, the middle looked to be in his late thirty's, dark skinned and angry, his cheeks seemed to be glowing somehow and the man in front of him had tanned skin in his mid twenties. This man held a face of indifference and kept walking towards Peter.

"Jackey, you didn't say nothing about no kids!" the last man whispered to the middle man. Peter's enhanced hearing picked it up.

"Shut it." the man, now identified as Jackey, hissed. Peter stood in awe, wondering what he should do; wondering what _these men_ would do.

"Gentlemen." The first man said stopping right in front of Peter. "Please go to your posts."

The youngest walked away from them to the other side of the room, Jackey stood in the stairway and the first man, the one who was obviously in change, stayed in front of Peter.

"And who do you think you are?" questioned Peter.

"I, I am somebody who will bring justice for the man who helped me and many others." The man said.

"What kind of answer is that? Are we doing a riddle contest now, Mister Gollum?" Peter quipped.

The man before him smiled but Peter could tell it was strained.

"There is nothing you can do, boy."

With that, Peter saw each of the men start to burn from the inside. It was like there was a fire in their skin! Peter felt his spider sense buzzing from all angles and knew this was a fight he couldn't win. He charged past the man in front, careful to avoid touching him. The man blocking the door was almost as easy to get past. They didn't seem to want to stop him. Peter's hand brushed against Jackey's arm as he barged past. He could feel himself being burnt. He glanced at the pained skin and saw that he had an actual burn on his hand. Peter began to race down the stairs.

* * *

><p>Disregarding the glass in front of him, Tony smashed through the window into the main living area. He had warned Steve of his plan and the captain had raised his shield to protect himself. Nobody was there. Tony flew towards the stairs and started to fly down them. Steve was about to protest when he saw his team mates. There was a gun shot.<p>

Natasha and Bruce were in the middle of the staircase with two people unconscious on the floor. One man, one woman. On the stairs in front stood two men and another woman, all in fighting stances. One of the men looked like his right arm was sun burnt. That just happened to be the same arm Natasha had shot a second ago.

"Oh crap." Tony muttered as he assessed the scene.

Steve climbed out of Tony's arms and dropped to the ground, ignoring the pain of his bullet wound as much as possible.

The woman at the front smiled.

"We have a message for you, Tony Stark. Mister Killian doesn't like dying." she said.

"Hey Bruce," Tony said nervously, not turning around. "Now would be a good time to suit up."

Bruce looked questioningly at Tony. The three intruders moved towards the heroes and Bruce started to turn green.

Steve put his shield up just as two more people came into the staircase from the door leading to the second floor.

The intruders all stopped moving and started to glow red. Right at that moment Peter ran down the stairs. Steve looked over his shield but it was too late. At that moment, the building exploded.


	21. Chapter 21

It was all a blur. Fire erupted everywhere, there was a hulk like roar that echoed somewhere close by. For a good while no noise penetrated Steve's ears. It was like white noise circulated in a dome around his head.

Steve wasn't sure how long ago he had stopped flying after the explosion, he wasn't sure if he had even hit the ground. If he had, Steve didn't know how long it would take for the world to stop spinning.

Finally, after a long time, Steve felt able to move. More like he needed to. His team was in that explosion, they could be dead! _Peter _was there! That was all the motivation Steve needed. His team was strong, they were near indestructible, even those that weren't, they were just too stubborn to die. But Peter, he was just a kid. He had been placed in Steve's care and he failed...

Steve moved a finger, he felt a rough texture beneath him. Sound was slightly coming back to him but his sight was still dark. Feeling started creeping into his body, starting from the very finger he just moved. Steve groaned, he wished the feelings would go away again, anything but this. He could feel pain, so much pain! He hadn't felt so much since before the serum. There was something heavy on his chest. Steve moved a hand, his left- no, his right hand, and felt his stomach. It felt like a large slab of concrete or something. Something was digging into his side. He felt around and found the smooth familiar texture of the his shield. It had hardly cushioned his fall but Steve was pretty sure it was to thank for him not having a broken back... at least, he didn't think he had a broken back.

Steve lifted his right arm to push away whatever was on top of him. Whatever it was, it somehow missed his face. He pushed away at it and felt it shift but at the same time a burning pain shot through his arm. Steve released the debris and lifted his left arm. He felt along the right arm for any problems and found a large gash running past his bicep muscle. He guessed the reason he wasn't feeling much pain like cuts was because of adrenaline, kicking some of the pain away. That gave Steve a horrible thought. If it was this painful now, how bad was it going to be when the adrenaline wore off.

_No time to think about it, _Steve ordered himself, _just have to get out!_

Steve raised both of his arms and pushed, ignoring the white hot pain in his arm and other pains that surfaced through his shoulders, abs and torso.

The object above him groaned and shifted. He pushed and pushed feeling the weight above him heave.

It must have taken over a minute before he could see a white light peak into his little, cramped prison. It showed that he wasn't at all far down. Fresh air flooded into the space and with that came deafening noise. There was so much noise, Steve almost dropped the object above him but he held firm. The white noise vanished and was replaced by screaming, sirens, cars and life. He was alive, he just had to move this damn slab. Finally, Steve gave a final push and, what appeared to once have been a corner for a room, flew off him. It took Steve a minute to adjust to the sounds and the light, it was blinding! Slowly but surely, the light dulled down so he could make out shapes, then colours and finally, things came back into focus.

Steve looked around and saw that the once impressive Stark Tower was now cut down to car sized chunks surrounding about a hundred metre radius and Steve was near the edge of that radius. Steve tried to stand and found himself collapsing immediately. His legs felt weak and he felt powerless. Steve grabbed the closest thing he could find which turned out to be something like a pipe, sticking out of the ground and used it to heave himself up. It was a hard job standing upright but he managed. Just.

"Cap!" a voiced called out. Steve instantly spun around to the sound and instantly regretted it. Everything hurt!

Iron Man, or Tony in a dented, scratched and helmetless Iron Man suit flew towards him.

"Jeez, Cap, you look..." Tony trailed off.

"Not looking to good yourself." Steve muttered after a moment of silence. Tony grinned.

"Well at least I know your personality's still in tact." Tony quipped with a small smile before flinching.

Steve raised a questioning eyebrow but Tony waved him off.

"Come on, you need a hospital." Tony said urgently, realising that Steve was probably bleeding out.

This time, Steve waved him off.

"What about the others?" He questioned.

"It seems hulk grabbed Widow just seconds before the explosion. He shielded her from basically everything. The only thing she has to worry about are hulk sized hug bruises. Clint contacted me, he got Pepper out of the building and away from the disaster area. Whoever positioned these people just wanted Stark Tower to fall, they knew how to position people so that it wouldn't cause too much damage to surrounding areas." Tony said. If Steve wasn't so out of it he might have picked up on the sound of Tony's voice that might have suggested he was impressed.

"Peter, what about Peter?" Steve demanded.

Tony's face fell.

"I – I don't know." He stuttered. The great Tony Stark felt useless. "Hulk claims he jumped to grab him but missed and-"

He saw the despair in Steve's face.

Hulk and Natasha are looking into where he might have landed. Don't worry, we'll find him." Tony said unconvincingly.

Yes, they would probably find him, but both men knew he probably wouldn't be alive.

"I- PETER- I have to find- PETER- find him." Steve rambled. He called for Peter when trying to make a sentence. He wasn't sure what was more important to say and his brain still wasn't functioning properly.

He struggled forwards in a hope to find him but couldn't hold his own weight.

Tony watched in despair as his friend scrambled hopelessly over debris calling out in vain. He saw silent tears sliding down Captain America's face. It was a sad day when the man your father looked up to, someone you and the rest of America looked up to, broke in a shamble of his own blood, tears and grief.

When he couldn't watch any more, Tony grabbed Steve and flew him to hospital, ignoring the mindless thrashing that was only half hearted, and hoping he could help his friend.

**Sorry for the delay. I'll try update tonight but I'm currently in Switzerland and heading to Paris and have to go.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Sorry I didn't get this to you sooner. **

**Can I just confess my love to the guest reviewer Wile E. Coyote who reminded me of a very important fact in my story so thank you!**

**On with the show!**

* * *

><p>Steve sat patiently as needles were stuck into him. He sat still as the x-rayed him. And he sat silently as his cuts were cleaned and bandaged. It must have been hours as he sat there, quietly, being wheeled from room to room.<p>

Tony had left quickly to help the other find Peter, he promised he would inform Steve immediately. At least, Steve would know that if he had been paying attention.

He knew that they had injected him with something, probably an IV bag or something. He didn't question why the needle went in so easily, normally his skin was pretty impregnable.

They must have put a _strong _sleeping draught into the IV bag or got it into his system some other way because the first conscious thing Steve noticed was shouting. He wasn't sure when it started but he knew he wanted it to end. The other thing he noticed was that his eyes were shut. He didn't remember shutting them, or feeling so tired.

The shouting was coming from the doorway. Steve forced his eyes to open and ignored the urge to go back to sleep.

"- don't care!" came a familiar voice.

"He needs sleep." Steve didn't recognise that one.

"No, he needs peace." The familiar voice argued. It was Tony. That voice was Tony. Tony was helping find Peter. Something had happened. He should have stayed to find Peter!

"Sir please-"

"...ony" Steve cut that doctor off. He didn't realise just how weak his voice was. "Tony..."

The doctor and Tony went quiet and then raced over to him.

"Mister Rogers, you should be resting." The doctor urged. Steve ignored the man and gripped Tony's arm with painful force.

"Where's Peter?" he begged. He stared pleadingly into Tony's eyes.

"We found him." Tony said sadly. He avoided Steve's eyes.

"But- b- please- don't tell me he's..." Steve stuttered.

"He's alive." a new voice declared. A woman's voice.

Steve spun around and looked directly at Natasha standing in the doorway. Her hands looked bloodly and scratched, probably from searching. She was covered in dust and had a bruise on her right cheek but otherwise, she was okay.

Natasha glared at the other men in the room and they took the subtly warning of -get-out-or-die- and left. Natasha then moved next to Steve and evaluated him in his hospital bed. She looked him over with pity. He obviously looked terrible.

"Peter's alive. Just." Natasha started bluntly. "He's lost a lot of blood, broken several bones and even cracked his skull. He also has severe burns on a majority of his exposed skin. Those are only the surface injuries. The doctors are operating on him now to remove a pipe that got lodged in his abdomen."

Natasha went quiet and let Steve soak in all the information. His head fell back onto his pillow and he stared longingly at the ceiling, as if hoping it would fall and crush him. Take him away from here, from the hurt and suffering.

"He's not going to make it." Steve murmured quietly. Natasha's eyes widened a fraction. Steve always seemed so positive, so ready for anything. This was not the man she knew. She knew she had to do something to help him regain some of the hope that had some how vanished.

"Steve," Natasha said, regaining his attention. "There was no way Peter could have survived that explosion. He should be dead from the injuries alone. The explosion should have already killed him but somehow he's survived. That's got to say something, right? He's not ready to die. He's fighting. He will keep fighting Steve. He can't give up now."

Steve looked into her eyes and knew that she was convincing him as much as she was trying to convince herself.

"Please," he asked softly. "Can he be moved in here?"

Natasha looked around as if evaluating the space and then looked at Steve.

"I'll see what I can do." she said. She gave the smallest lift of her lips. Steve knew that meant she'd try all methods humanly possible including threatening and torture. It made him feel the smallest bit better.

"I hear you're pretty bashed up." Natasha said, changing the conversation.

"How bad?" Steve groaned.

"Well, other than the obvious cut on your arm and other scratches, the bullet wound you sustained before the explosion was pushed further into your body. They knocked you out for surgery." Natasha explained. Steve was shocked by that. He didn't even remember going into a surgical room. "I'm guessing hiding behind your shield prevented burns and a majority of the damage. Banner found it by the way."

Steve saw the shield by the doorway. Natasha must have brought it in when she entered.

"Your hair's a little singed but I'm sure you'll get over that fact." She teased with very little humour in her voice. "Other than that, you should thank the serum for making you so resilient, you've only broken two ribs."

"So cuts, bruises, a previous bullet wound and two broken ribs." Steve summed up. He internally felt for the wounds and realised that the pain was dull.

"And singed hair." Natasha pointed out with a little bit more of a smirk. She had finally distracted Steve. Steve gave a small smile.

"And yourself?" He asked.

"Some bruises." She explained. "Hulk grabbed me at the moment of the explosion."

Steve nodded. They fell into a comfortable silence.

"I'm going to go and make some room arrangements." Natasha said, breaking the silence, before walking out. Steve sighed. Peter was alive, he had to believe Natasha in saying he would survive. With that new found hope, he gave into the silent urges of the sleeping drug still in his system and fell back into the dark abyss of sleep.

* * *

><p>The next interruption came in the form of talking. There was no shouting but it didn't sound like civilised talking. The hushed voices were obviously disagreeing with each other.<p>

Steve groaned intentionally to gain there attention. Hopefully then they would stop talking in bad forms of whispering and actually keep him in the loop.

He opened his eyes. Bruce and Natasha were watching him. Bruce seemed to have come across a clean set of clothes since changing back from his large, green alternate persona. Opposite them stood a female doctor and the doctor from earlier. The unknown doctor was in scrubs, as if she had just been in surgery.

"Hey Steve." Bruce greeted, trying to get rid of the tension in the room.

"Bruce." Steve responded formally with a nod of his head.

Everyone kept glancing at each other as if they were having a silent conversation which no one seemed to understand.

Finally, Bruce sighed and stepped towards Steve's bed.

"Steve, Peter's lost a lot of blood." Bruce explained carefully. "He needs some more immediately but after analysing his blood, the doctors think there's a strange mutation in the blood. They don't have time to analyse the mutation and get him the blood in time."

Steve stared at Bruce, waiting for him to continue.

"There is a chance that the mutation is because of you." Bruce continued slowly. "It could be the serum that was passed through the genes and Peter has it. If that's the case, the doctors," he gestured to the man in the white lab coat and the doctor in scrubs, "are unsure of which blood type to give him, what effect it might have on him."

Bruce paused again to allow this to sink into Steve's brain. He didn't need to think about it.

"Give him mine." Steve ordered quickly without thinking. Bruce was in shock for a moment before coming back to his senses.

"Sorry, what?" Bruce asked.

"Give him my blood." Steve ordered. "If my gene is causing the mutation then give him my blood. If you don't have much time then do it, do whatever it takes to keep him alive."

Bruce looked at the steel gaze of the man in the bed and then nodded. He looked back at Natasha and the doctors and Natasha took over.

"You heard the man." Natasha said. "Let's get started."

"But, we need to know blood types. We don't know-" the female doctor was cut off.

"Mister Parker is an A positive." Bruce interrupted. "I had Tony check his medical file."

"So am I." Steve declared. He then glared at the doctor, as if begging her to protest again. She kept quiet and she and her colleague left to get the equipment. In no time they were back and drawing blood.

At first the doctor had been adamant about not drawing a lot of blood from Steve, claiming that he was in bad enough shape as he was. Steve countered her and ordered the nurse in charge, a slightly chubby, old woman, to take as much as they needed to help Peter.

Steve started feeling a little dizzy from all the blood withdrawal but ignored it as he watched the space next to him being prepared for the new occupants arrival.

Peter was carted in. It made Steve want to cry. It was hard to make out much flesh since a majority of him was covered in bandages, even his head. There were wires and tubes poking out of him everywhere and several machines monitoring his heart and lung functions.

Steve lay there staring at the boy. The doctor looked sadly between them. This one was a young man, probably just finished medical school.

"Were you close?" He asked Steve softly.

"We-" Steve stopped. They hadn't been close. He had vanished when Peter first arrived, he had been busy when Peter normally got back from school. They had had an argument before this had happened and not made up.

"I wanted to be." Steve announced honestly, his eyes never leaving Peter.

The doctor nodded sadly, as if pretending to understand.

"He's very strong. I would have thought his burns should be more severe but somehow, its as if they've healed slightly. What I'm trying to say is that he's strong." The doctor concluded. Then his face faltered.

Steve looked at the doctor, curious as to why he now looked so down trodden if he believed in Peter so much.

"Will he be okay?" He asked. The doctor looked Steve in the eye.

"We've estimated there's only a five percent chance he will survive the night." The doctor replied honestly. "After that, we're not sure if he will even wake up. He has a lot of internal bleeding and some of his cuts just won't stop bleeding."

Steve nodded and tried to look strong in front of the doctor. Once the man left, Steve sat up properly and looked at Peter. He climbed out of bed, careful not to pull any important wires or tubes as to alert anyone of his movements. He didn't want to be shoved back into bed. He was careful to move the IV drip with him as he walked over to Peter's bed. His legs felt weak but at least they moved. Steve stood over Peter and watched as the sheet slowly moved up and down in accordance to the boys breathing. He looked so horrible and beaten up, even from the limited amount of skin shown.

Even when Steve had fended off bullies or joined the war, he hadn't thought people could get this hurt. He knew there was pain and he knew there was death. Until Bucky's death it never truly registered that this could happen to those close to him. Sure, he had lost his parents but he hadn't been close to his father and with his mother being ill and depressed all of the time, the fact that she passed away was just an imminent way of life. It was going to happen.

Bucky had died too early. That had hurt a lot. It was his first true loss. Then he found out that Peggy had died years before with basically his entire family in tow. All but Peter. And now here Peter was, the last of his family, probably on his death bed.

Peter had mentioned a curse on the family, a curse where everyone in the family died. Steve had said – no, he had silently promised, that they would be alright. He had said they were made of sterner stuff. They were meant to survive, they were meant to keep going. But here Peter was, dying. Maybe it wasn't there family that was cursed. Maybe it was Steve. Steve had loved Peggy. He would have loved his family. Some cruel fate had decided to rip that away from him, it knew he was coming back so it decided to steal what could have been his. However, this evil fate had left a crumb of hope, it had left Peter. Allowed him to get close to the boy, finally feel that things would be okay and now, that same evil fate was trying to steal him too. It was as if it was a cruel practical joke was being played and it was being played on him. He hated it!

Steve pulled a chair from the other side of the room and collapsed into it, it hurt badly but Steve didn't care. He gripped Peter's unbandaged right hand as gently as possible but as firmly as he dared, trying to convey his strength into Peter, trying to give Peter a support line to come back to, to guide him back to Steve. With that, Steve fell asleep.

* * *

><p>Steve woke several time. Some from nightmares, others from voices (he was convinced that some were complaining that he wasn't in bed) and some times from the hope that Peter had moved. Out of the three, only the last one never happened. There was no response from Peter. The only indication that he lived were the steady bleeps from the machines. Steve noted that he had a blanket covering himself. Obviously someone had put it on whilst he slept.<p>

"Afternoon, Cap." A voice called from behind.

Steve turned slowly in his chair, without letting go of Peter's hand, to see Clint perched on the window sill with one leg inside the building and the other outside. The archer was dressed in jeans and a light grey t-shirt.

"Afternoon?" Steve asked.

"Yep, you've been asleep for about a day. You're bodies been recuperating and what not." Clint explained. "You even missed a visit from Thor. He heard about the explosion and came by to see how everyone was doing. As far as I'm aware, he's still around. Something about wanting to protect his friends. So now we have an Asguardian bodyguard."

Clint grinned at the idea of Thor in a tux with a wire coming out of his ear. It just was not imaginable.

"There's also a really pissed off doctor outside. Something about how you need to be in bed or something." Clint said mockingly with a growing grin.

"I-"

"Please don't try and explain. I hate doctors, thank you for pissing them off."

"It's a pleasure?" Steve replied with a raised eyebrow. Clint just grinned.

"How are you feeling anyway?" Clint asked, his smile dropping.

"I've felt worse." Steve responded before changing the focus point. "I hear you got out before the blast."

"Yeah, I heard Jarvis's warning right after he told us Pepper was here and asking for Tony. I was about to come back in when the whole thing went ka-boom." Clint explained. "Apparently the intruders positioned themselves so that the building fell vertically instead of horizontally which means that basically no one outside the building got hurt."

Steve was glad of that fact. It meant he wouldn't be adding to the number of casualties who cried to him in his nightmares, wondering why he couldn't help them, even if he wouldn't have been able to save them anyway.

He looked at Peter, praying that his voice wouldn't scream at him among Bucky's and many others.

"Any developments with Peter?" he asked, looking between the archer and the teen.

"Well," Clint said, looking a little uncomfortable. "He made it through the night which was an achievement. Doctors are still sceptical that he'll make it though."

Steve glared at the door. This was not the type of news he wanted to hear.

"I see why you hate doctors." Steve muttered darkly. Clint gave a sad smile.

"Sadly, you can't blame doctors for giving morbid news, you can just blame them for sticking needles in you and assigning you to pointless bed rest which _you obviously_ don't need." Clint said trying to lighten the mood. Steve sent him a small, thankful smile for the effort.

The two of them chatted for a while. Steve learnt that Thor had been hanging around with his girlfriend Jane and had seen the explosion on television. Or at least, Jane had insisted that this was not one of those 'movies' that Thor had been told about, and was actually real life.

He also learnt that Tony was digging through the wreckage and trying to salvage his and Bruce's research. Along with that, he was collecting any undamaged property like the safes he had put in everyone's rooms. He had found three apparently. They all seemed dented but otherwise intact with their valuables still hidden. Even Tony couldn't access two of them since they weren't his. One turned out to be Natasha's and the other was either Steve's or Peter's since no one else could activate it. Since Steve hadn't used his, he guessed it was Peter's. He had no idea what was hidden in there but gave strict orders to Clint that it must not be opened in any circumstance and Clint was to tell Tony that. Clint just nodded.

They talked for a while longer, discussing anything but hospital when the door opened. Thor stepped in, clad in his formal Asguardian attire, with the red cape and even the hammer.

"Captain Roger, it is good to see you well." Thor announced in his booming voice. Steve greeted Thor with a friendly nod.

Half of Steve wanted Thor to quieten down, he didn't want to wake Peter up. The other half wanted the man to jump about and talk as loudly as possible in hopes that it might stir Peter from his slumber.

"I hear that this is a brethren of yours." Thor motioned to Peter.

"No, he's not my brother." Steve said, staring at Peter. "He's my great grandson."

"He is you descendant?" Thor clarified.

"Yes."

"I wish we could have met under more fortunate circumstances." Thor said morbidly. Steve nodded in agreement.

Thor sat on Steve's unoccupied bed and told them of his time with Loki, travelling to the different realms and protecting Jane. He explained how Fury had helped cover up a majority of the incident and how, since then he had been staying with Jane Foster.

When Thor told of Loki's heroic death, Steve gave his condolences. Clint said nothing and stared blank faced out of the window. Steve and Clint filled him in with their lives since they had last met. Apparently he had met Fury before coming to the hospital. It had been Fury who redirected him. The one eyed man had given him a brief run down of what the team had been up to since their last meeting. They filled in the gaps.

A doctor, one of the ones from the night before, had come in to tell Steve that he couldn't have guests any more since visiting hours had finished and had instead, frozen. He must have thought not to at the sight of a man daring to sit half in and half out of a window; the sight of a large god sitting on a hospital bed and a man who had been upgraded by a super serum in a vaguely grumpy and protective mood (how would you be if your great grandson was dying in hospital). The doctor turned and walked back out. Steve looked over at his friends and saw Thor looking confused and Clint looking a little too gleeful with a cheeky glint in his eyes. That man had too much fun scaring doctors.

* * *

><p>At some point Steve drifted off to sleep. It had been dark outside when he fell asleep but when he awoke it was bright outside. He guessed he must have slept the whole time. There was food waiting for him on a table by his bed which he ate. In all honesty, he couldn't remember the last time he ate. Maybe he had eaten at hospital at some points and just not registered it.<p>

It was at midday that the peace in his room was interrupted. A nurse came in to evaluate Steve's wounds and Peter's vitals. Apparently his heart seemed to be a little stronger but until they removed the bandages they wouldn't be able to check the exterior wounds.

Members of the team came in and out over the next four days. Well, all of them but Tony. Apparently he was still working through the wreckage and working on their future accommodations. Pepper popped by to comfort Steve and check on them both but Peter still hadn't woken up. It was agonising.

Steve felt better each day. He watched as his cuts faded. On the forth day things went down hill again.

He had been sitting, talking to Peter, somehow this had become a regular occurrence. He hoped that Peter could hear him. The doctors had taken Peter out once again to replace his bandages. Apparently he was healing at inhuman speeds which was amazing! Steve just assumed that it must be his blood working wonders, as long as Peter was getting better, he was okay with that.

It was over an hour and still Peter had not been returned. Steve started pacing the room. No one had come in to tell him anything. Last time it took more than half an hour, they had apparently take him to have a few tests to check that he was actually getting better. That time though, they had told him that they were going to do the test.

Five minutes later, someone came in with his lunch. It was the nurse who had taken his blood on the first day. She came in quietly and put down his plate. Steve was wondering why she was being so silent. He grabbed her wrist.

"Ma'am, could you please tell me what's taking them so long with Peter?" He asked politely. The woman stuttered out a few words as if terrified to upset him. He had three doctors and two nurses attending him and Peter. They had been informed on who they were, they had seen other Avengers milling about near here and they had shared stories of how they had walked in while someone was having a rant. She looked terrified that should would upset him and set him off.

Steve relaxed his face and his hold on her wrist.

"Please," he said softly. "I need to know if he's okay."

"He's," She chose her words carefully. "he's had a relapse. Apparently there's some debris inside him from the explosion, the doctor even assumes there is something from before the explosion but we're unsure."

The nurse stopped and Steve gave her and encouraging look as if trying to tell her to continue.

"The things inside him are becoming infected and causing swelling and a mass of bacteria inside the body. It is also causing some cuts to reopen." she finished.

Steve let go of her arm completely and sat down. After a moment of contemplation he asked, "Will he be okay?"

"I'm not sure. I do not know the severity of the situation but I will keep you informed as much as I can." She said comfortingly.

Steve thanked her quietly and she stood awkwardly. In the end she decided he needed the company.

"Is he your son?" she asked, pulling up a chair. She may know names, code names and medical status's but she didn't know the whole relationship thing.

Steve let out a small smile. They had guessed someone might come to that assumption.

"No," he smiled softly. "he's my great grandson."

He looked up and gently laughed at the woman's shocked face.

"Oh yes, I remember my mother telling me about the great Captain America. I was just a baby when you went missing." she smiled. "I couldn't believe it when I saw that you were still alive."

Steve nodded, "Think how I felt being alive. I still haven't learnt how to use all this new... tech."

The nurse laughed.

"You're a dinosaur like me then." she laughed. "My son's always trying to teach me how to use his tablet."

Steve laughed, thinking of Tony trying to teach him how to use all the holographic screens. He had declared that one day he would teach Steve how to convert things from the tablet to the holographic screen and vice versa. He hadn't even learnt how to use either equipment yet.

"How many children do you have?" Steve asked, feeling comfortable in the old ladies company.

"I have a boy and two girls. I've also been blessed with seven grandchildren." she smiled nostalgically.

She then went on to tell him about her children and the two girls and four boys she had for grandchildren. She told him of the mischief her elder grandchildren get up to, twins around the age of nine. Apparently they look cute but would more likely put a whoopy cushion under your chair then hug you (unless that was the easiest way to get the cushion under your bum). Steve listened and laughed.

Finally the woman stopped.

"What's wrong with your relationship with Peter then?" she asked.

Steve looked at her incredulously.

The woman raised a sceptical eyebrow.

"A mother always knows when some thing's wrong." she informed him. Steve gave a small smile.

He told her about the fight they had had. How he hadn't apologised and how he just wanted Peter to get better.

The woman, who Steve found out was called Betty, took Steve's hand gently in her own.

"Young man, you may be older than me in some ways but in wisdom you are not." she joked softly. "I've looked after enough kids to know that when they argue with their parents like this, they forgive them. Maybe not instantly, and maybe not always, but they try to hold firm until the adult breaks. They want the adult to prove that he or she has done wrong and they can admit it, the kids want to know that grown ups know when they are wrong, even if they don't phrase it like that. That young man probably already forgave you. He would drop everything to sit by your side if you were in his place. If he hasn't forgiven you then he will when he wakes up. No man, other than that of a genuine parent demands that their blood is taken when they themselves are hurt just so that the child is protected. _Once _he gets better, I think everything will be fine with you two."

Steve stared at the wise woman in front of him and, after a moment of sheer shock, he hugged her. He had needed to hear that, even if he didn't know it.

Betty laughed softly and hugged him back. She then told him she would go and check on Peter's progress. Steve sat in silence.

_She called me a parent_, he thought gleefully. _She thinks that I'm fit enough to be a parent_.

Steve contemplated her words again and again.

Ten minutes later Betty rushed back in. This time, she did not look so cheerful.

"He's lost too much blood and we've used up all the blood we took from you." she explained quickly. Without hesitation, Steve stuck his arm out.

"Take more than you need." he demanded. Betty gave a warm smile, as if to say _I told you _and set to work.

She ran out once she had a pint of blood and went straight to where they had Peter. She then came back and took more. Steve insisted she take more until he started feeling dizzy. Betty seemed uncomfortable taking so much but did as Steve said until she could take no more.

Peter was rolled back in about an hour later. He had a few less bandages on and so Steve could see his pale face more clearly and saw all the burns and scratches. Steve didn't think the burns looked as bad as everyone had claimed them to be but decided to drop it. As the doctor has said, apparently he was just healing well.

Betty and one of the doctors, the young male one apparently called Scott, stayed behind, talking in hushed voices. Even with Steve's superior hearing, he didn't listen in. He was too focused on Peter.

Scott cleared his throat to attract Steve's attention. Steve looked up. Neither doctor or nurse was showing enough emotion to guess what this conversation might be about.

"I've been told by Betty that you know about the infections that we have just encountered." Scott said.

Steve nodded.

"Peter is healing at exponential rates, even faster than yourself." Scott said, as if suggesting that something else, other than Steve's blood, was doing this. "The burns have died down a bit, some cuts have practically gone and even his head wound has cleared up nicely."

Steve glanced between the two of them, nodding his head in the universal gesture of _yes, get to the point_.

Scott sighed.

"Now that things have cleared up a bit we've noticed things that have previously..." Scott stopped, deciding not to bother with beating around the bush. "We've noticed some scars. Three to be exact, running across his torso. They've been distorted by some more recent injuries, but they're still there. There are also a number of other scars that seem to be fading. Would you know anything about them?"

Steve looked between the doctors and Peter.

"No, Peter never told me anything." Steve said, his throat going dry. Peter was keeping secrets. Secrets that were causing him to get hurt, to be in pain.

"Well, if you think of anything, please tell us." Scott said.

He thought back to all their conversations and could not find one that suggested that Peter was doing something dangerous. Maybe he was being bullied? Or he was into extreme sports? No, that didn't seem like Peter.

"One last thing." Interrupted Scott. "The mutations in your blood, Peter's body is accepting your blood but your mutations are different. I don't know if it's just because of it being passed down a few genes but I thought you should know.

Scott and Betty left Steve to his thoughts.

Steve sat there dumbfounded. He had no idea what to think of that last fact.

Steve was brought out of his thoughts again when he heard shouts from outside. He stood up, reluctant to leave Peter, and pushed open the door. Outside the room was a desperate Gwen Stacy screaming at the guards, sent by SHIELD, preventing her from going further into the corridor.

He was about to intervene when someone got there before he did. An arrow whizzed past one of the guard's left ear causing him to spin. At the end of the corridor, by the window (obviously) stood Clint, in jeans and a light blue shirt. Clint looked relaxed but his bow was in his hand with another arrow notched, resting by his side. Steve knew he could shoot it again in half a second without a second thought.

"I suggest you let the young lady through. I'd _hate_ to spoil this romantic visit." Clint said with a threat lacing his voice. The guards automatically stepped out of Gwen's way allowed her to go forwards.

Steve made himself more prominent in the corridor and held the door open, showing her the way to Peter. Clint followed quickly behind. Once they were all in, Steve shut the door and assessed the new people in the room. Clint had moved to Steve's unoccupied bed and was squatting at the edge. Gwen stood at the end of Peter's bed, her hands covering her mouth and tears forming in her eyes.

Steve wasn't sure what to do at that point but he moved forwards and put a comforting arm on Gwen's shoulder and guided her to the chair he sat on. Gwen looked up at Steve with tearful eyes.

"Will he be okay?" she asked quietly. Without his super hearing, Steve thought he might have missed it.

"The doctors say he's healing phenomenally quickly." Steve told her. She nodded absently and looked at Peter's pale face.

"Oh Peter." she murmured quietly. She grabbed his hand as if to check he was still alive and kissed it.

"We'll give you a minute." Steve said softly, squeezing her shoulder encouragingly. Again, she nodded absently.

Steve motioned for Clint to come over with him and they went to the window. Steve looked back and saw Gwen resting her head on Peter's bed, staring at his face.

"What's up, Cap?" Clint asked, drawing Steve's attention back to him.

Steve told Clint about the scars the doctors mentioned. He told him exactly what the doctors told him.

Clint stood in silence, looking over at Peter as if the teen would wake up and sing all of the answers.

"Has Peter mentioned any of this to you?" Steve asked. Clint looked at Steve, analysing everything as always.

"I've not really talked to the kid, especially not in private. Sorry Steve, I don't know anything about this. Maybe his girlfriend will know the answers." Clint suggested pointing towards the lovers.

Steve looked over and noticed that Gwen was now sitting up straight. It sounded like she was murmuring something but her voice was getting louder and louder.

"- you promised." She was saying. "You said you would be alright. You promised you wouldn't leave. Please, please, I can't lose you too."

She broke down, hiding her face in Peter's bed sheets.

Steve looked at the two of them. She probably knew all the answers but Steve couldn't bother her with them now. Instead, he strode right over, knelt beside her and pulled her into a hug. Betty had know exactly what he had needed in the way of comfort, and now, somehow, he knew what Gwen needed. Gwen wept into Steve's shoulder for a very long time. She wept until she had no tears left. Finally, she pried herself from Steve's comforting arms and whipped her puffy eyes.

"I'm sorry." she mumbled.

Steve had held men in the war who had wept for those they had lost. In his eyes, he didn't think it made a person weak, it made them honest. Every person needed to release there feelings somehow.

Steve shrugged it off.

They all sat in an awkward silence before Clint broke it.

"He loves you a lot, you know." Clint said softly. His voice made Gwen jump in the silence.

She smiled softly at Peter.

"Yeah, I know." she smiled.

"Got any blackmail material?" Clint asked mischievously.

Gwen laughed, rubbing her eyes again, thankful for the distraction.

"Well, he's a bit of an idiot sometimes." she began. "He keeps trying to use humour at the _worst _times."

Steve laughed. Clint grinned, happy Gwen was cheering up.

"Once, a bully tried picking on a kid and Peter started insulting him. Such stupid insults." She confessed, hiding her face as if she herself were embarrassed by the memory. "the clutz spent the rest of the night at my house, worried that the guy was stalking him to kick his arse."

Gwen laughed at the memory.

"Gwen," Steve asked seriously. "the doctors mentioned scars, they said he has three on his abdomen and several other scattering his body."

Gwen went pale, her eyes darting between Clint and Steve.

"I need to know where he got them." Steve pushed on. "I want to help him."

"I-" Gwen started. She looked between them feeling trapped.

"Is he still doing what he did to get those scars?" Asked Clint neutrally.

Gwen's eyes kept darting between them. Apparently her face told Clint _yes_.

"He's going to keep getting hurt if we don't know what it is. Do you want him to get hurt?" Clint asked almost accusingly.

"I-" Gwen looked over at Peter. "No- No- no, I can't I swear, I can't."

Gwen pushed back on the chair and hurried to the door but Steve was faster. He jumped in front of her.

"Gwen, I want to help him, please." he pleaded.

Gwen started hyperventilating.

"No, no, I really," she breathed. "It's not, I can't."

Steve grabbed her shoulders and helped her calm down. She still looked (and felt) like a trapped rodent.

"I can't," She said. "It's not my secret to tell."

With that, she ran out of the room.

"Well, that was enlightening." Clint said sarcastically.

Steve went after her to apologise but couldn't find her anyway in the hospital grounds. In the end he ran back in when he found that his hospitalisation had been leaked and a number of news cameras were outside. Thankfully, he didn't think they saw him.

When he got back upstairs he found that he had even more guests. Bruce and Tony had come to visit, or so Steve thought.

They seemed to be arguing about something. It seemed that Tony was being as stubborn as ever.

"Glad you could visit." Steve said sarcastically. Both men seemed shocked at how spiteful he sounded. Clint looked understandingly.

Tony shrugged it off and stepped forward, obviously ignoring whatever Bruce had told him.

"Do you have any idea what the kid was doing in my labs?" he asked bluntly.

"Sorry, what?" Steve questioned harshly.

"I take that as a no." Tony brushed off. "I found some weird data, not from any of my research, and apparently not from Bruce's. I asked Jarvis, had to go through some protocols and found out that Pete had been working on something. For some reason, Jarvis is being damn cryptic about what was going on. Practically all the research is burnt up, papers, notes and so on. Test tubes are smashed, nothing salvageable. Any ideas?"

"Wh-" Steve was confused and annoyed. How dare Stark be so blunt to him. "I have no idea what in the _hell_ you're on about!"

Bruce pushed past Tony and glared at the billionaire.

"Look, we just wanted to know if you knew anything, just to clear some things up." Bruce explained. He glared at Tony, as if asking him to go on. Tony rolled his eyes.

"You could ask Fury." Clint said. Tony jumped, forgetting the archer was even there. Steve and Bruce just raised questioning eyebrows.

"Yeah, Natasha was ordered to give Peter something. Apparently the content was classified along with the reasoning for it. Whatever it was, I think only Director Fury and Peter knew what was in it and why." Clint said.

So not only was Peter hiding scars and a secret life which only his girlfriend knew about but now he was hiding some secret experiment.

Steve slumped. Did Peter not trust him at all?

"Well, we could ask Fury and demand to know. Or we could open his safe box. Maybe it holds all his dark secrets." Tony suggested simply. Bruce glared at him, Clint rolled his eyes.

If they spoke to Fury, what would they find out? Steve couldn't even think. And if- no – when Peter woke up? Would he be mad at Steve for interfering in his life again? Would he trust Steve less or want to leave? And what about what Gwen had said. She knew what the scars were from. She probably knew about this experiment too. She had said it was Peter's secret to tell.

It was Peter's secret to tell. He would tell Steve when he was ready.

"No." Steve said in his most authoritative voice. "We don't ask Fury, we don't pry into Peter's things. Peter will tell us. If he want us to know, he will tell me when he's ready."

He glared at each of them as if telling them to contradict him. Even Tony cowered slightly. Bruce nodded with the result.

"We also brought his Safe for when he wakes up." Bruce said, pointing at the dented black box beside Peter's bed.

"Yeah," Tony said, recovering. "And I've moved any salvageable stuff I've found to the new housing."

Steve looked at him questioningly.

"Seriously? You only expect me to have one house? Jeez! I was having another building set up with a jet pad and everything. It's the Avenger's Mansion" Tony announced proudly.

Steve just rolled his eyes.

The next thing surprised everyone, Peter started groaning.

* * *

><p><strong>I've been informed by my dear friend that I'm travelling with that if I kill off Peter... I die too. Maybe Peter will live to the end then ;)<strong>

**Anyway, I love you all for reading this, I almost cried when I saw the number of favourites, followers (over 1000, SERIOUSLY) and soooooooo many reviews! I never thank you enough, so thank you!**

**Please tell me if this chapter is any good. I'm scared it's terrible, please tell me!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Was this a quick enough update.**

**People, the amount of reviews for the last chapter was phenomenal, thank you :')**

Peter had only woken up for two minutes the first time. The doctors were called in and a light was shinned into his eyes. They asked him questions and monitored his vitals. No one was sure if the doctors got any relevant information from Peter's little wake up but there was more hope in the air. He had woken up, maybe not coherent to his surroundings but his eyes had opened, his jaw had moved and he had fallen asleep again.

The next time he woke up, late at night on the same day, Steve was in the room and Natasha was telling him that the doctors had been forbidden to look into the strange mutation in his blood. Any vials of his blood were to be monitored by a SHIELD agent. They were only to be used when mandatory to check any change in Peter's system due to medication or anything. Steve didn't understand, he was just paranoid about all of the information he had learnt recently and had mentioned it to Fury who took this paranoia to the next level.

Steve had tried to talk to Peter but a breathing tube had stopped Peter from communicating. When asked "Are you alright?" he gave a weak thumbs up before curling up again and falling asleep.

While Peter slept, Tony came around tried to get Steve to pry into what Peter had been doing. Steve zoned him out after the third 'you don't need to pry too much, just find out the basics.' Basically, Fury obviously hadn't put up any information where Tony could hack it so he was in the dark.

At some point Tony gave up prying when he saw Steve completely ignoring him and reading _Lord of the Rings: Two Towers_. Apparently someone had recommended it to him. Being frozen in the 1940s means he missed the hype. Apparently people still enjoyed them though. Tony sat down and they discussed the weather, Peter's condition, Tony rambled about his suits that he had saved. Apparently he had five now. Tony tried to educate Steve on how he was supposed to use his television, without it being present, but even with the remote, Steve doubted he would have understood.

The third time that Peter woke was the next day. Steve was there with only the doctor about. The doctor took out the tube that guided air to his lungs and stepped back.

"How are you feeling?" The doctor asked in a condescending voice.

Peter gave a weak attempt to speak. He gave up and shifted uncomfortably in his bed. Steve jumped up and went to grab Peter some water. It only took a minute but the room was awkwardly quiet. The doctor attempted to fill it with telling Peter about his progress. He mentioned all of the damage done and how they had to do a blood transfusion with Steve. When he told Peter he was healing at a phenomenal rate, Peter became rigid and the awkwardness in the room intensified. Thankfully Steve came to the rescue with a glass of water and a reassuring look.

Although the reassuring look made Peter feel a smidge more comfortable, it also made him feel very uneasy. It suggested that he knew something. Something about Spider-man? His connection to Connors? Something he just didn't want Steve to know?

Peter gulped the water down greedily. Sadly it finished too soon and he held the cup within his hands so that he wouldn't fidget. The water calmed his sandpaper throat and seemed to automatically reduce a throbbing headache.

"Peter, how do you feel?" the doctor asked again.

"Never better." Peter muttered sarcastically. His voice was scratchy from the limited use.

The doctor gave an annoyed huff. Steve had a small smile at Peter's sarcastic response, happy that Peter still retained his humour. His smile dropped when he saw the doctors annoyed expression.

"Peter, honestly, how are you feeling?" Steve asked.

Peter sighed, realising that he couldn't get out of this interrogation. Although no one seemed to be interrogating him, the tiredness he felt, the less throbbing but still there headache and the aches and pains.

"I feel like someone shoved me into an inferno and then into a bucket of ice." Peter summed up. "I'm aching everywhere."

Peter attempted to sit up, tired of being flat as a plank of wood for so long. He groaned in pain and Steve jumped out of his seat, helping him. He adjusted Peter's pillow and allowed the teen to rest some weight onto him while he adjusted.

"Well, we can up your dose of painkillers but you're already on a strong does. It seems to wear off quickly though." the Doctor stated.

Peter nodded and shut his eyes, relaxing into his bed. So far, all he'd learnt was that the doctors didn't know anything important.

Steve waved the doctor off. Finally they were alone. Steve looked at his hands, around the room and then back at Peter.

"Hey Pete, I'm sorry you had to go through that." Steve started apologetically. "I'm sorry that I kept things from you and I'm-"

"Steve, stop." Peter groaned, trying to shift some more to look at Steve. "I shouldn't have gotten so pissed off. I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable or made you think I was angry at you."

Steve stared in shock for a moment and then relaxed, feeling as if the weight of the world was finally off his shoulders.

They sat in a comfortable silence for over five minutes. Peter sat there listening to the noise of Steve breathing and the sound of life out side of the window. The funny thing was that his hearing didn't seem to hear as far as it normally did. Peter put it to the fact that he was probably tired.

Steve sat comfortably relishing in the fact that Peter was finally awake and able to talk. And he was forgiven. Peter didn't hate him.

To break the silence, Peter asked how everyone else was. He asked for a full report on how things were going and who had come to visit. Steve did most of the talking. Peter just listened.

"Thor came by," Steve was saying. "He really looks forwards to meeting you."

"Wait, a Norse God came to visit?" Peter asked astounded.

"Yeah, he came to check on the team when he heard about the explosion." Steve replied.

"What's he like?" Peter asked.

Steve then went into a full description of Thor, telling him that he's a little old fashioned. Peter laughed, asking if he was more or less old fashioned then a guy from the forties. Steve gave him a description right out of a Shakespearian book and Peter just laughed but didn't ask any further questions.

Finally, Steve mentioned Gwen's visit.

"Gwen also visited." Steve said.

"Really? How's she doing?" Peter asked.

"She was really upset in the state that you're in. She was muttering about not wanting you to leave and a promise you made." Steve said, allowing it to sink in.

Peter hid his face in his hands. He started muttering under his breath, berating himself.

"Peter, what's wrong?" Steve asked.

Peter pulled his head out of his hands and looked angry. Steve guessed the anger was aimed at himself rather than anyone else.

"Gwen never gets emotional. She hates all that soppy stuff. I must have really hurt her!" Peter growled. "After her dad died, I pushed her away, scared I would hurt her. She just shouted at me and told me to stop being stupid so we made up. After that I promised to be careful. I promised to never leave her like her dad did!"

"Peter, there was nothing you could do." Steve argued. "You didn't ask to get blown up."

Peter just grumbled something incoherent.

"Any news on who attacked the tower?" Peter asked, changing subject.

Steve shook his head.

"Either the others aren't telling me something or they've got nothing. All I know is that some man hates Tony and took revenge." He summed up.

"So I can blame Tony for the pain I'm in." Peter said playfully, finally lightening up. It hurt to smile but he ignored it. He didn't want Steve to worry any more.

Steve gave a small smile, happy that Peter hadn't lost his sense of humour.

"I think he's made up for it though," Steve joked. "He is paying for your medical bills after all."

"Darn, it means I can't guilt him into doing stuff." Peter huffed.

"Such as?" Steve asked, grinning.

"Hmm, I don't know." Peter said, tapping his chin pretending to think. "Maybe I can get him to buy me a car, or a jet pack! Or I could use his armour."

Steve kept grinning except it was a little strained now. He hoped Peter was joking.

"You know," a voice from the door came. "If you wanted a car you could have just taken one from the garage."

Peter looked up and saw Tony walking into the room, grinning, with Bruce following shortly behind.

"How are you feeling, Peter." Bruce asked, smiling.

"I've had better days." Peter responded with a grin.

"As for a jet pack," Tony continued, ignoring the others. "Well, I'm a little bit more reserved on that."

Peter grinned.

"Cap'd kill me if you flew into space. I mean, I know your some funky weird kid but I don't think even you could survive zero gravity and zero oxygen." Tony pushed on.

Peter's grin dropped, he held his breath, just as he had done when the doctor mentioned some anomalies.

Steve was switching between glaring at Tony and giving worried glances at Peter. Bruce also dropped the smile and tried to fade into the background.

Tony noticed the drop in the mood and the rise in tension.

"Ah," he said. "I see that you hadn't broached the subject yet."

Steve's glare only intensified. Peter looked around, panic stricken. He felt like a deer caught in head lights. The only difference was, instead of swerving to avoid hitting him, he knew he was going to become road kill.

"I- I- how much do you know?" Peter stuttered, they could tell he was petrified.

"Peter," Steve said in his most reassuring voice. "If you don't want to talk about it, we'll wait."

"How much do you know?" Peter asked. He tried to sound stronger than the first time but his voice wavered.

Tony, Steve and Bruce all looked at each other, as if deciding what to say and who should say it. Finally, after a long, silent conversation, Steve spoke.

"We know there's something different in your blood and it's not from my gene." He started slowly. "We know about the scars on your body and some sort of fast healing factor that's allowed you to recover and probably what kept you alive."

Steve stopped, he didn't want to rush this on Peter. He didn't want Peter to feel like he was being forced to reveal his secrets.

Peter motioned for him to continue with a wave of his hand.

"Tony said that he's founds some weird lab things that he didn't know about and we know that Fury asked something of you." Steve continued. He would have said more but Peter cut him off.

"My research!" he cried out. "Is it alright?"

He looked at Tony, his eyes begging him for good news. Tony felt guilty to be the bearer of bad news. The kid looked so desperate, he was so tempted to lie.

"I'm sorry, Pete. It basically all got burnt up." Tony said. By the tone of his voice, it sounded like he was saying someone had died. By the expression on Peter's face, it looked like that was what he had heard.

Peter seemed to go into a shell and just nodded dumbly, as if he was on an automatic pilot setting.

Steve stopped talking so Tony took over.

"Jarvis wouldn't tell me what you were doing or anything. We also know that you were using your safe. It's by your beside." Tony motioned to the right of Peter's bed. "As far as I know, from what Clint told me, that Gwen girl also knows everything. She didn't say anything though."

Peter just kept nodding a few more times, accepting the facts as they came.

They all sat in silence for a very long time, watching Peter process what he had been told. Each one went into their own little world, thinking about what Peter might tell them, fearing what secrets he might unleash on them.

"Peter, we're going to go and get some lunch. Why don't you get some rest?" Bruce suggested, pulling Tony along as he walked out the door.

Steve stayed for an extra few seconds, hoping Peter would speak up, say anything! Maybe he would ask Steve to stay, keep him company.

That didn't happen. Peter just nodded automatically again and so Steve walked out, leaving Peter to his thoughts.

_What do I tell them?! _Peter thought desperately to himself.

_The truth!_ A voice in his head screamed back.

_But what if they hate me for it?_ Peter asked, crying for some answers.

_They won't!_ The voice argued. _Steve obviously cares for you and the others can just accept it!_

_But-_

_You live with an assassin, a spy, raging green monster and genius drunken idiot with a big mouth. You're the great grandson of a super soldier and while you were in a coma you got visited by a Norse God. Seriously, telling your secret won't kill anyone! _The voice reasoned.

Peter wanted to laugh at how outrageous his life had become in such a short time. He decided to listen to the little voice in his head.

He looked around the room, hoping they would come back in so he could explain everything, once it was out, he could relax. He wouldn't have to worry about it any more.

He waited five minutes but still, they didn't show.

_Maybe I should wait and tell everyone together._ He thought to himself. He brushed it off. He'd rather just tell Steve and Steve can tell everyone else.

Peter let out a sigh, he was now bored and tense. He decided to turn on the TV that was at the end of the room. He looked around for the remote and found it on his left side table. Obviously Steve hadn't used the TV or the remote wouldn't be so out of the way.

Peter shrugged off those thoughts and switched on the TV. The first show to come on was Spongebob Squarepants. It was a nice, simple show that Peter wouldn't mind watching. Instead though, he switched channels to some boring reality thing, next was some antiques road show, next was some angsty drama show (he could tell by the solemn faces and gravelly voices), next was another reality show. This went on for a few more minutes. Peter finally stopped at the news, hoping for some cheery story to lighten up his mood. Thanks to his crappy luck though, there was no such story.

Instead, at the bottom of the screen there were two words in bold capitals:

**LIZARD ESCAPES**

Peter stared in horror.

"... to our top story." the reported was saying. "Doctor Kurt Connors, also known as The Lizard, has escaped. He has been reported making his way to Queens in Manhattan through the sewers. Civilians are advised to stay inside at this time."

There was a pause as the news reporter put her hand to her ear. She was silent for a second before nodding and facing the cameras once more.

"There has just been a development in the Lizard story. Apparently, Connors came onto the surface on Ingram Street*. He has apparently destroyed the houses from nineteen to twenty one Ingram street. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Apparently, Connors is in Lizard form and has gone back into the sewers."

The screen suddenly changed into a map of the island of Manhattan. It had a red line on it.

"The map on your screen shows the estimate route that Connors is taking due to reports called into the police." the reporter stated. "If you see or hear Connors in the sewers, please inform the police."

She then passed the spotlight over to the weatherman who spoke of sunshine, warm weather and a strong wind. Peter didn't hear any of that. Instead his brain was working at one hundred miles per hour as he remembered the route. He had gone to find Peter but of course, he didn't live there any more. The next place he would go is Gwen's house. The map showed him making his way to Gwen's!

Peter looked around desperately, hoping that Steve and the others were back, wondering how he could get through to them. He knew he was in no condition to help, they could help though. He couldn't see his phone anywhere! There was the emergency button but Peter didn't think anything he did would get them here soon enough.

Deciding to do something really stupid, Peter jumped out of bed and tested the ability of his legs. They were a little wobbly but not too bad. His hips ached from the pressure though. He ignored all the pains and did another sweep of the room with his eyes. They fell upon his safe. It had his costume, his webs and his mask. If the Avengers couldn't help him save Gwen, he would save her.

Peter quickly opened his vault, careful not to rip out any of the wires. He knew that they would probably set off alarms and while he was fine with Tony, Bruce or Steve barging in, he didn't want the doctors to spring in on him too.

He changed as best he could while still hooked up to a heart monitor and a few other machines that go beep. Finally, with most of his costume on, Peter ripped out the wires, grabbed his mask and web shooters and jumped through an opened window.

Having a moment of amnesia, Peter quickly looked to his wrists to check if he had his web shooters on. Thankfully, he had remembered.

Swinging through New York now was not as fun as he remembered. Yes there was the breeze that he used to love. Yes he got the thrill from swinging. And yes the city looked very pretty.

However, the breeze rippled his costume uncomfortably on his open scabs and bandaged wounds. The thrill wasn't so much enjoyable as terrifying. For some reason his spider powers seemed to be a little off. They wouldn't warn him about the building he was about to fly into or where best to shoot his webs. But the city still looked very pretty, even if Peter couldn't pay attention to it because of the agony he felt.

Peter decided that the best course of action was to think of where Connors was heading and cut him off on the way to Gwen's.

Realising that his powers were acting up, Peter swung down delicately, wary that it would hurt a hell of a lot more to land after a thirty foot drop rather than a five foot drop.

He landed in a fairly empty side road and pulled off a drain cover, allowing the retched smell of the sewers to waft into his masked face. Peter jumped down, and listened. He could hear the sound of dripping water, the sound of scurrying rats and the sound off -

STOMP STOMP STOMP

The Lizard was nearby. Peter crawled along the slimy walls, listening to the sounds of splashing and thumping. It was weird, it felt as though his hands and feet weren't sticking to the wall as well as they used to. It was like there were less fibres in his fingers that helped him cling to things. He pushed this to the back of his mind and crawled faster.

He rounded a dark, damp corner and was faced with an ugly, scaly, green face.

Peter jumped backwards and stood in the Lizard's path.

"Forget to put on your make up, Connors?" Peter mocked.

"Parker." The Lizard hissed.

"I hear you popped round for a house call. Sorry, I forgot to send you a memo. I don't live there." Peter said innocently.

"But I'm guessing Miss Stacy still retains her original address?" Lizard hissed mockingly. He knew it would rile Peter up.

"Leave Gwen alone!" Peter demanded seriously.

Instead of arguing, the Lizard dived at Peter. Even though his spider sense was acting up, Peter still had his own logic and knew stepping to the side was a good idea. With that in mind, he dived to the left to avoid being hit. He slid under a claw aimed at his stomach and jumped onto the lizards back. Putting his hands on Connors head and covering the lizard slits that the man called eyes. He steered the monster into a wall. The impact echoed through the sewer tunnels. Peter back flipped off of the Lizards back and shot webbing to secure him to the wall. Instead of tugging at the webbing, the Lizard yanked his claws from the wall _with _part of the wall attached. He ran towards Peter with his cement hands extended in front of him. Peter barely dogged the clap that would have caught his head between the two cement blocks. In fact, the top of his head was grazed. He might have registered the pain if he wasn't pumped with adrenaline. The adrenaline dulled most of the other pain he felt as well.

Peter jumped up and clung to the ceiling. He turned around for a moment, looking for an exit.

That was a mistake.

In that second, the Lizard jumped up to attack and Peter's faulty spidey sense didn't warn him. Peter was caught in a strong bear – lizard? - hug which started crushing his insides. The Lizard then jumped a second time and burst through a drain cover.

People around them screamed. Peter struggled in the Lizard's hold, groaning as he did so. He almost got his arm free when he heard a loud scream. He looked around and saw that Lizard had used his tail to whip people back. One man flew into a car and the other two flew further down the street. The other two seemed winded but alive. The third man, the one who hit the car, wasn't moving, he wasn't getting up. The Lizard cackled at the destruction he was causing.

Peter panicked and struggled harder, trying to get out so that he could help people. He hissed in pain. Black spots started dancing in his vision as his oxygen supplies became very limited. The Lizard was increasing his hold on Peter.

Peter knew that a moment ago the adrenaline convinced him he wasn't in as much pain as he should have been. Now however, he was either in a load more pain it even surpassed what the adrenaline could hide, or the adrenaline was wearing off. Peter _so _hoped it was the adrenaline wearing off. It would be agonising if it was the former, not the latter.

Peter struggled harder and finally got his arm free. He webbed the Lizard in the face before kicking him hard in his scaly stomach. The amount of strength he used must have hurt because suddenly the Lizard was dropping him and stumbling backwards, hissing in anger and pain.

Peter quickly assessed his surroundings. They were on a busy street surrounded by civillian's. Peter had to get them away from there so that they didn't hurt anyone. Peter knew that the Lizard only wanted him. Therefore, he would follow Peter where ever he ran to. Peter decided to run to the nearest building and climb. It was a tall, concrete building with lines of windows for every floor. A few seconds later he heard the sound of smashing concrete and knew the Lizard was following.

Trying hard to ignore the pain he felt, Peter climbed harder and faster. A few times he was positive that he felt a claw scrape at the sole of his foot. Thankfully, it never got through the fabric in his shoe.

Peter didn't have time to celebrate his victory of climbing a large building when he got to the top. As soon as he reached the top he was pounced on by a large reptile wanting to kill him.

"Connors," he called out, avoiding another slash of claws to the head. "can we please stop. I don't want to hurt you!"

The Lizard let out a cackle of a laugh. Peter jumped to the other side of the roof, watching the Lizard glare at him.

"I don't think you're in a position to fight back," the Lizard hissed. "Let alone hurt me!"

"Please, let me just talked to Doctor Connors." Peter begged.

The Lizard only laughed harder.

"He has given up!" The Lizard cackled. "When no one told him what your plan was he finally gave in. You failed him!"

"NO!" Peter shouted. "I was working on it! Connors, listen to me. I – it, it got blown up. I need to restart but I was so close! I almost had it!"

"He's gone and his last thoughts, you're nothing like your father! You're a failure!" the Lizard cried.

Peter charged in outrage. He punched left and right. Attacking with renewed vigour. The Lizard did his best to block. Some of the punches were severe but his healing abilities fixed them quickly.

"You almost didn't beat me when you had help!" the Lizard grabbed at Peter, using his tail as a rope. He wrapped it around Peter's neck and hoisted him up. Using his claws he slashed at the web shooters, affectively disarming Peter.

"If you can only just beat me with help, how are you going to do it alone?" The Lizard asked sinisterly.

"He's not alone." A voice shouted. Peter had never been so happy to hear that voice. He inched his head to the left slightly and saw the Avengers, all suited up and looking very _very_ angry.

***Peter's legit street. He lived at 20 Ingram Street. I googled it :D**

**I'm already writing the next chapter with the end of it already written. Sorry for the delay.**

**PS. I love you all! Over 1000 faves, followers and almost 1000 reviews. To each and every one of you, I want to say thank you for reading and thank you for constantly making me happy :)**


	24. Chapter 24

**Warning: one swear word**

**Also, I updated another chapter about two-three hours ago and my email has been swamped with reviews and favs and follows. Can I just say I love you all? Thank you.**

**Sorry it's not too long.**

Bruce and Tony took Steve down to the canteen for lunch, taking turns to distract him. Nothing was working, he would fidget one moment and then school his features and pretend to listen. In the end they gave up.

They sat eating for at least five minutes before anyone spoke. It was Bruce who spoke first.

"We've been looking into who broke into the tower, these extremist people." Bruce stated.

Steve suddenly started paying attention. He could really use hitting someone right now.

"And?" he prompted.

"We have a round about idea on their location. We plan to storm in tonight." Tony finished. He let out a small burp. Steve would have looked disgusted but right now he didn't care.

"When do we leave." Steve asked urgently.

"Cap, you're not going _anywhere_!" Tony laughed. Steve sent him a full on glare.

"I'm fine!" he insisted.

"Steve, you're still recovering and Peter needs you, you can't just run off." Bruce stated, trying to dissuade his friend from going into danger.

"I am perfectly fine! I'll only be gone for a night. Peter will be asleep for most of it anyway. I need to pay them back for what they did." Steve growled.

"Steve," Tony said, sitting up and being serious. "we all want to hit them hard. They blew up my tower, our home," he gesture to all three of them. "they hurt us and they hurt Peter. You're not the only one who cares about the kid. I plan to blow them all sky high. They might be able to regenerate but they can sure as hell feel pain."

Steve glared at them both but only half heartedly. Sadly, they both had reasonable points.

"Trust me," Bruce said with a small smirk. "Even the other guy is pissed off. He'll be joining the fight. I'm sure he'll dedicate more than enough hits for you _and_ Peter."

Steve dropped the glare and shared a small smile with his friends. They sat there discussing battle plans. Even if Steve wasn't going to join them, his tactical skills were useful in making a plan. They talked for a while longer before deciding that they should go back. They were walking down the corridor when they saw two nurses running into his room. One SHIELD security guard was missing but they found out that he had just run into the room.

Steve, Tony and Bruce took the rest of the corridor at a sprint. Steve feared the worst when he went in but was completely shocked to see that Peter's bed was empty. Tony rushed into the room behind him and assessed the situation. Having a more scientific mind he could pick up things around him like the room was a machine, looking for the change in parts that caused the disturbance:

1. Peter was not in the bed or even in the room.

2. The window was opened wider then when they left.

3. TV was on.

4. Peter's vault was open.

Tony did a double take on that last one. He ran over to assess what was inside.

Steve spun around and barged into one of the SHIELD operatives, holding him by the neck against the wall.

"WHERE IS HE?" Steve demanded. Pure anger burned in his eyes.

"I don't know." the man chocked.

"Steve!" Bruce cried, pulling him away from the man turning red in the face.

Steve dropped the man like he was vermin. The SHIELD agent's partner came rushing in to help him.

"Sir," the other operative stated formally. "Mister Parker did not leave by the door, we would have seen him."

"If he didn't leave by the door then how did he get out of the room?" Steve asked, outraged.

Bruce answered that question, walking over to the window.

"I think he jumped." Bruce said quietly, looking further out the window for any sign of the boy. There were too many tall buildings about, cutting off their view of the other streets but why should that matter? The only way out is down.

Steve ran over to the window and looked in all directions. When he was one hundred percent sure that Peter wasn't splattered on the floor or sitting on the window ledge on the floor above he moved back into the room. What was Peter _thinking_?

"Hey guys," Tony said, sounding distant. "I think you should see this."

Steve and Bruce walked around Steve's bed and found Tony kneeling on the floor in front of Peter's vault, holding a crumpled piece of paper.

"Steve," Tony said urgently. "I know you said you don't want to snoop around but I think this warrants reading."

Steve looked conflicted for a moment, forgetting his fear about what Peter could be doing and worrying more about his privacy.

"This could be a matter of life and death." Tony stated seriously.

That cured all of Steve's concerns and he snatched the paper out of Tony's hand. He skim read it quickly with Bruce reading it quietly by his side.

It was a letter to Peter, a birthday letter from his Aunt.

Peter was Spider-Man.

Peter was Spider-Man.

Peter _is_ Spider-Man.

Peter is Spider-Man and he jumped out a window.

"It gets worse." Tony said, breaking Steve's muddled train of thoughts. He pointed at the TV screen.

"... Lizard's break out has bought outrage among the people as they believe that security forces are lacking. Also on the show..."

Steve zoned out the news reporters voice.

"But- he can't." Steve said quietly, his voice rising with panic. "He can't fight he's- he'll die. He's hurt, he can't honestly-"

"I'm calling the others. You're right, he's in no shape to fight." Tony said quickly. He pulled out his phone. As an after thought he added. "Your grandson-"

"Great grandson." Steve inserted automatically.

"-is an _idiot_. When we see him, I'm gonna slap him!" Tony finished.

"Natasha, where are you... get yourself and Clint to the hospital ASAP... no, don't bring Pepper. Bring something with a lot of fire power... yeah a quinjet sound great... don't ask just do. Oh, and bring one of my suits." Tony said before hanging up. He wanted to be angry, every second he wasted on the phone was a second a dumb kid could die. He just hoped that Peter wouldn't do something stupid... oh wait, he already was.

"Let's go to the roof." Bruce suggested. "It'll be easier to land there."

Tony nodded and pushed past all of the confused doctors, nurses and agents in the room and surrounding the corridor. Steve and Bruce followed the people free tracks Tony made but not before Steve grabbed his shield.

All Steve could think about was that Steve was in danger, he knew he should be angry but he couldn't help but worrying. He would be angry later. He did agree with Tony though. Peter was an idiot. What the hell was he thinking?

Steve pushed this to the back of his mind. When they got to the stairs Steve ran up next to Tony.

"You don't have to come." He said quietly.

Tony stopped for a second and looked outraged at Steve and slapped him. Steve looked at Tony in complete and utter shock.

"Seriously? You think that you can go and save him by yourself? You're fucking hurt! Just because you're related to the kid does not mean you're the only one who cares dumb-ass." Tony ranted angrily. "We're going to get him back together. You shouldn't even come until you've healed but you don't see me tying you to a bed!"

Tony then stormed up the rest of the stairs. He _really _wanted to rub his hand. Hitting Steve seriously _hurt_. As in, Tony wasn't sure if he'd broken any fingers. He tried his best to ignore it so that he could walk away with dignity and hope that Steve would stop being so stupidly... Steve.

Tony was the first the roof, he just stood, glaring at the sky. Steve and Bruce came up a moment later. Steve still looked a little shocked but now he looked a little more sheepish instead.

They stood in silence for a minute, wondering what could be taking the others so long.

Bruce broke the silence since curiosity got the better of him.

"Tony, do you think Peter's powers are genetic, as in they're in his DNA or something else?" Bruce asked. Tony stopped glaring and glanced at his science bro.

"Why?" Tony asked sceptically.

"He's lost a lot of blood and taken on Steve's. Do you think it could effect him? Scientifically, if he had spider powers then he would be able to lift a huge amount, along with having a healing factor, the ability to walk up walls and a sensor in his brain warning him of incoming dangers." Bruce pointed out.

"You think Steve's blood could have changed that?" Tony asked. He then answered his own question. "Technically, it's logical. The blood count in his system right now would largely be Steve's* which could cause residual effects. Let's just hope that didn't happen."

Steve got paler and paler as the conversation had gone on.

"Are you saying my blood has altered Peter's fighting abilities?" he asked.

"No, he should still be able to fight. We don't even know if this even is true." Bruce pointed out. The more he thought about it the more worried he became though. It sounded so possible. He could feel the other guy fighting to be released.

"Did I mention that your great grandson is an idiot?" Tony muttered again.

Seconds later they saw a quinjet in the distance. Tony started raising his arms, trying to signal where they were. From the direction where the ship was heading to, they knew they had been spotted. They could see Clint piloting while Natasha looked through the window over his shoulder. Clint spun the ship around and released the hatch so that they could get in. They were greeted by Natasha who was in her Black Widow gear. Clint spun around in his chair giving them a wave. He was also dressed as Hawkeye. Sitting down though, was Thor. They were all surprised to see him but he just smiled and gave a nod of creating.

"We thought that you would all want your suits." Natasha said with a smirk handing Steve his folded costume. He thanked her and moved out of the way to change. Natasha then pointed out Tony's suit, sitting as a rectangular case next to Thor. Tony went over and pressed a few buttons. Within seconds it was attaching itself to his body.

"Why didn't you just summon it like you used to?" Clint asked.

"I haven't installed the upgraded version of that feature yet. Last time I tried, it blew up one of my cars." Tony said, slightly mournfully.

"So, where to?" Natasha asked, changing the subject.

"We need to look for Peter." Tony said, walking over to the window and looking out over Clint's shoulder. Clint closed the hatchet and took off so they hovered above the city.

"This is the relative of the Captain, correct?" Thor asked, joining in the conversation. Tony nodded, not taking his eyes away from the window.

With Natasha and Clint being professionals in the weird, they didn't ask why.

"How do you suggest we do that?" Natasha asked sceptically.

"Look for Spider-Man." Steve said, walking forwards now dressed as Captain America.

Natasha raised an eyebrow but didn't ask any questions.

Clint flew around the city while Natasha called in for any reports on Spider-Man. Thor wanted to ask but instead stood in silence. They didn't have to wait long. Seconds later they were heading towards the direction of a roof. As they got closer they could see the happenings on the roof. Peter was attacking. They could tell he was angry from his punching. Clint landed silently on the building next to them. And they all climbed out.

Bruce was planning to stay behind but when he saw Peter being strangled by a tail. That was the last straw, he felt the monster coming out.

(This takes off from the last chapter, more Peter's POV)

"If you can only just beat me with help, how are you going to do it alone?" The Lizard asked sinisterly.

"He's not alone." A voice shouted. Peter had never been so happy to hear that voice. He inched his head to the left slightly and saw the Avengers, all suited up and looking very _very_ angry.

"Put the kid down, Lizard." the metallic voice of Iron Man ordered.

The Lizard grinned evilly.

"Why trust him, he's a failure!" The Lizard retorted, tightening his grip on Peter's neck.

The Hulk growled but didn't advance. Thor raised his hammer, looking prepared to smite him where the Lizard stood.

"No he's not!" Steve shouted charging forwards. He flung his shield towards them. The was a loud snap and Peter felt himself falling. He felt the tail loosen and watched as everything turned sideways. He saw as Clint, now dressed as Hawkeye, shot arrows at the Lizards eyes. Natasha shot at the heart, hitting the mark each time and Tony aimed his lasers at the weak points of the scaly skin. A large blonde man, looking identical to Steve's description of Thor looked ready to smash into the Lizard but Hulk beat him to it. Hulk stomped forwards, blocking the view of everyone firing and punched the Lizard in the face. Time slowed down. The Lizard's neck was at an odd angle, the punch pushed him over the edge and the Lizard fell. There was no screams, no sound of claws attaching to concrete. There was a clap of thunder falling next to the building. That was followed by a loud thud. A big loud thud that indicated the impact of the Lizard with solid ground. The lightening must have furthered the impact.

Peter then realised that Steve had rushed over to him. Steve yanked his mask off and drew in a breath. He knew that Peter was Spider-Man but seeing it personally, face-to-face was still shocking.

"Hey." Peter said in a harsh, sand paper like voice.

"Hey Pete." Steve said softly.

Steve helped the boy to his feet. When Peter swayed too much he put an arm around his waist and practically held the boy up. In turn, Peter put an arm over Steve's shoulders and hissed in pain. Steve gave him a worried look but Peter brushed him off. Natasha gave Peter a warm smile which he tried to return. He was sure that it came out as a sneer thought. Copious amounts of pain would do that to someone. Clint gave him a nod, checking that he was alright and Peter gave a weak thumbs up using the hand that was on Steve's shoulder. Hulk just grunted and jumped to the building next door where Peter saw a quinjet waiting for them. Natasha and Clint followed suit. Thor stayed behind to greet Peter. He noticed that the teen seemed a little worn and so joined his comrades on the other building shortly after.

Steve waited at the edge of the building and handed Peter over to Tony. He was sure Tony wanted to say something but he kept quiet. He flew Peter across the the gap and secured him into the quin-jet. Steve sat next to Peter, Clint and Natasha sat at the front, controlling the quinjet. Bruce sat opposite Steve, wearing a dressing gown, looking very human and very tired and Thor sat next to Bruce. Tony stood between them. He lifted the head plate.

"So, would this be a bad time to point out we know you're Spider-Man?" Tony asked innocently.

Peter just grinned. He rested his head on Steve's shoulder and drifted into a peaceful sleep.

**Forgot to mention this in the last chapter, to those who got their A level/BTEC results, I hope everything went well. Please tell me how you did. Best of luck with the future.**

**To those who go GCSEs results today, I hope you got what you wanted and got into the sixth form you wanted.**

**And those finishing uni, I hope you did well and got everything you wanted/needed and good luck in the outside world.**

**To anyone else not English who have done exams, I hope you did well and that you got what you wanted or better! Good luck in the future for you too. (sorry, I'm not well educated on things outside of the British education system).**

**Also, please tell me what you thought of the chapter.**

***Made up biology that I hope no one will complain about. Just accept it for the story even if it might be wrong please.**


	25. Chapter 25

**Sorry this is late, I've been reading too much Batman fanfic (after this I'm off to the comic book store for the new issue of Grayson!)**

**Also, thank you for all the reviews, faves and follows **

**Enjoy**

The first thing the Avengers did was take Peter to the hospital. He was shredded of his costume and checked over. Although he had sustained new injuries and aggravated earlier ones, he wasn't actually that bad, all things considered. When the doctor said that, Tony instantly came up with the idea of moving him to the Avengers Mansion, wanting him to be able to sleep in a proper bed and get away from doctors. The press was also still downstairs so it would be nice to visit without a bombardment of cameras and questions.

Peter was too exhausted to wake up for anything; not the doctors prodding him, not Steve lifting him up and putting him down or the loud voices of people arguing about his well-fair. When Peter finally did wake up he found himself tucked into a large, comfortable bed. The room was dark with the only light coming from his door that was open ajar. That didn't mean anything though. Tony could have just bought really good curtains. It didn't matter though, Peter just rolled over and drifted back off to sleep. He didn't even notice that he wasn't in much pain. It was a nice feeling.

Steve stood by Peter's door and watched him sleep. Although most would consider it creepy, he found the sight of Peter _not_ in hospital and very much alive to be the most comforting sight he had seen in a _very _long time.

Steve moved back to his room down the hall, making sure that Peter's door was open so that he could hear if anything was wrong. It was a silly thing, Jarvis would inform him immediately if there was a change but Steve was an old school man, he preferred to do things the original way.

After making sure that he too had his door open slightly, Steve climbed into a large bed, identical to the one in Peter's room, and drifted off to sleep.

People say that internal alarm clocks, those set due to your sleeping patterns, are a good thing. They believe that it helps you function or something like that. This morning, Steve had to disagree. He just wanted to sleep in but at six o'clock on the dot his eye jumped open and he stared at the ceiling.

Knowing that the only other person who might be up at this unreasonable hour was Natasha, Steve climbed out of bed and got ready to do a work out. If Natasha was awake, she would be training. Before heading to the training room, Steve checked Peter's room. The boy looked fast asleep so Steve walked out.

It was only then that Steve realised he had no idea how to navigate around his new housing. He knew where the entrance was, the stair case and his room. That was about the extent of his knowledge about the house. Oh, and Jarvis was online in the house. Ten minutes later found Steve throttling a punch bag after being given a detailed navigation of the house from his room to the gym.

The others congregated in the kitchen at around eight. That was where Steve found them once he had finished.

"Morning, Cap." Tony greeted. Steve gave a nod and greeted the others. They sat in a companionable silence for a good while... by Tony's standards. Actually, it was two minutes.

"So, what do we do now?" Tony asked.

Steve raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Are you not content with finishing your breakfast, son of Stark?" Thor asked, confused.

"I mean with Peter. What do we do now?" Tony elaborated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why would we need to do anything?" Clint asked.

"Well, you know-"

Natasha cut him off, "Do you enjoy having him around?"

"Well, yeah bu-"

"Do you care any less about him because of what he does?"

"No, bu-"

"Fury doesn't think he's a threat so that means he good on that end." Clint pointed out.

"Do you want him to move out?" Natasha finished firing off questions and gazed meaningfully at Tony.

"No! Of course not!" Tony retorted angrily.

"Then I don't see what the problem is." Natasha said calmly before going back to her breakfast.

Tony gave an angry sigh.

"So we're not even going to talk to him about all... _this_. Not going to ask him about Connors and not going to tell him he's an idiot?" Tony argued.

"Who's an idiot?" came a voice from the doorway. Peter stood, dressed in pyjamas Steve had put him in last night.

"Um... well... we were just..." Tony stuttered, caught off by Peter's appearance.

"Smooth," Snorted Clint. "Like sandpaper."

Peter hobbled into the room and Steve jumped up to assist him. He was going to help him sit down but instead, Peter brushed him off and he stood helplessly at the side. Peter asked about bowls, cereal and spoons, seeing that the milk was already on the table. He then sat down next to Steve and began to pour the cereal. He stopped himself adding the milk when he felt everyone's eyes boring into him.

He looked up. Steve instantly decided to break the uncomfortable silence.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, eyeing the boy with worry.

"I'm fine." He shrugged. Steve frowned so Peter sighed and continued. "Seriously, I'm not that bad. Just a little sore."

"I am glad you are well, boy of spiders." Thor boomed. Peter flinched at the loud noise and then went pale, remembering that they knew his secret now.

The others seemed to take note of his mood change. Tony was the first to actually make a comment.

"You know you're an idiot right?" Tony asked, he could feel anger and annoyance build up inside of him, he just wasn't one hundred percent sure that he was angry at Peter.

"I've been told that before but feel free to elaborate." Peter commented, looking bored.

"You could have told us something! We were just downstairs. Instead you go gallivanting off by yourself and almost get yourself killed!" Tony ranted.

"He was heading to Gwen's house!" Peter argued.

"And, we would have helped." Tony shouted back.

"How? How could I have called you?" Peter questioned angrily. "With my phone that I didn't have? Or how about pushing the emergency button by my bed which would have caused a lot of panic and you wouldn't have even gotten there in time?"

Tony sat there dumbstruck, trying to come up with a feasible answer.

Peter huffed in triumph before pouring the milk in his bowl and beginning to eat his breakfast. He just ignored the people staring at him.

"Tony's right, you know." Steve said calmly. "You could have talked to us before this got out of hand."

"I was going to tell you when you came back up." Peter said, glaring at his cereal.

Bruce decided to join in the conversation, instead of sitting in silence and observing.

"Did you notice anything weird with your... abilities?" Bruce asked. Peter looked curiously at the scientist.

"Yeah, they were acting up a bit." Peter said hanging his head in shame.

"I thought you were a scientist, Peter." Bruce pushed on. "I thought you were meant to be bright enough to realise you weren't at your best and waited for back up."

"I- I wasn't thinking." Peter stuttered. "I just did! I realised something was off but I didn't think into it."

"Well, Gramps here is the reason your powers were acting funky." Tony said, pointing at Steve. "You know, biology and stuff. Blood cell count being majority _not _yours."

Peter nodded and they went back into silence. This was not how anyone had predicted this conversation would go. Some thought there might be more arguing (cough Tony cough), other thought there would be more explaining and some just hoped they could avoid it.

"So," Steve broke the silence this time. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you get your powers? Were you born with them? Are you a mutant?" Steve quickly tried to cover up any insult that might have been given. "If so, I'm seriously fine with that a-"

Peter snorted loudly and Steve just stopped talking. Even Clint gave a smirk while Tony laughed at Steve's embarrassed face. Natasha looked vaguely bemused while Bruce gave a grin. Thor just looked down right confused.

"I'm not a mutant." Peter clarified. "I got bitten by a radioactive spider."

Now it was Tony's turn to snort. The others just stood there gaping.

"Kid, I have heard some weird excuses but that is just the cherry on top!" Tony laughed.

Peter looked amused.

"I wasn't joking." He smirked.

"Wow, your family is just weird." Clint said blatantly.

Both Steve and Peter gave Clint a mocking glare.

"Where the hell did you find a mutant spider!" Tony cried, still trying to get his head around it.

"It wasn't a mutant spider, it was radioactive." Peter pointed out. "And long story short, it was at OsCorp."

"Why the hell did they have radioactive spiders?" Tony questioned. "What were you even doing there? We both know Stark Industries is way cooler!"

"They were trying to create this strong thread which could move large amounts without snapping. As to why I was there, I snuck in to try and talk to someone who knew my dad." Peter said. The others could tell there was more to it but they didn't say anything.

"So getting bitten by a radioactive spider gave you spider abilities?" Bruce asked. Peter nodded. "So you have super strength, what else?"

Peter went into detail about his many powers and how they worked. It was more comfortable than arguing about the future of Spider-Man or his stupidity of trying to go after Connors. It also allowed him to be honest and Peter enjoyed that. He enjoyed that he didn't have to lie any more.

Slowly though, one by one, they left the kitchen table and went off to do other duties. Finally, it was just Steve and Peter in the room. Steve still listened attentively as Peter told him about a robbery he once stopped.

"Peter, what are you going to do now?" Steve asked.

"What do you mean?" Peter asked. He almost sounded worried but Peter kept the quiver out of his voice.

"I don't want you going back out there for a while. Not till you've healed up. Scratch that, I don't want you going out again." Steve sighed.

"Steve, please-"

"Let me finish. I don't want you going out because I know I'm going to worry. I already am worrying. Tony's right, you're an idiot! You shouldn't have done what you did, you could have left a note! We had to learn from Tony snooping into your private things, finding the note from your aunt. I don't want you back out there," Steve held up his hands to stop Peter talking. "but I'm hardly one to talk. I can't say I was exactly the same but we have similarities. If I was willing to go around different states trying to sign up for the war, lord knows what you'll do, and you already have powers."

Peter gave a weak smirk.

"So...?"

"So, I will support you all the way but I want to put out some rules-"

"Steve!" Peter groaned.

"Just listen, okay. Rule number one: we're getting you a new suit. I saw what you were wearing, it's just spandex. I'll get Tony to add some other material like Kevlar for protection. Although your 'spider sense' helps you, this will protect you." Steve said staring at Peter pointedly, waiting for him to object.

Peter muttered something that sounded distinctly like "fine".

"Rule number two: you will train! You will train with me, Natasha and Clint. Maybe Tony will want to join in, I don't know but from now on you're going to be building on skill and not just instinct. As you've seen, if you lose your powers again you'll be able to defend yourself until back up comes."

Another mumbled fine.

"Rule number three-"

"How many rules are there?" Peter asked, exasperated.

Steve smirked a little.

"You will tell me when you're going out on patrol and you will tell me when you're coming home so I know if you're five minutes late, I can go and look for you." Steve continued.

Peter groaned.

"Peter." Steve said warningly.

"Fine." The teen muttered.

"And finally, rule number four: you are to call for back up. I'll give you a communicator so that you can get in touch with either me or someone else on the team quickly."

"Can I-"

"This is not to be used as a chat line with Miss Stacy." Steve warned.

"I was going to say, can I work on making it. Just to see how it's done and add any features." Peter said annoyed.

"Such as?" Steve prompted.

"I don't know yet, that's why I want to work on it!"

"Fine. I'm sure Tony will also let you work on that web fluid in the labs. He seemed pretty interested in it. Bruce would too, if you asked." Steve finished.

Peter nodded before getting up and clearing his cereal away. He was about to walk out of the room when Steve stopped him by putting an arm on his shoulder.

"Peter," Steve turned Peter around to face him and put both hands on the boy's shoulders. "I just wanted to say that I'm proud of you. I don't know your aunt or uncle or your parents or my daughter Katherine but I knew Peggy and she would be proud too. If the rest of the family is anything like us then they would have been proud. And if everyone in our family was like you then I'm so proud of that family and I'm glad to be a part of it."

Peter didn't miss a beat. He reached in and grabbed his great grandfather around the waist and held him firmly for a tight hug. Steve responded in kind, not wanting to let the teen go.

They stood there like that for a long while before they pulled apart. Peter hobbled off towards his room. Jarvis had directed him how to get there and now he was using Jarvis to get back. Steve, on the other hand, asked Jarvis for directions on how to find Tony.

Tony was in his study talking to Pepper, updating her on Peter since he believed she had a right to know. When Steve knocked on the door he said his goodbyes and greeted the man.

"So, now we've got most of that in the open." Tony said as he directed Steve to his desk. They both sat either side of it.

"Most of it?" Steve asked.

"Well, yeah. We don't know his connection to Connors or why the guy claimed Peter failed him." Tony pointed out.

"We also haven't told Peter that Connors is dead." Steve pointed out.

"Okay, okay, we're both holding secrets. So, why did you come and hunt me down. I'm guessing it wasn't to become a drinking buddy." Tony said sceptically.

"No, it wasn't. I've talked to Peter about him being Spider-Man-"

"You didn't tell him he had to stop, did you?" Tony said glaring at him. "Because that's a sure way-"

"No. No, I just set down some rules." Steve cut in. Tony gave a sarcastic snort. "I was wondering if you could make him a suit made of stronger material then just spandex."

"Already on it." Tony said. "Started it last night, it'll be made out of the same material as my suit but more flexibility. That aspects definitely made this challenging."

"Good, thank you." Steve said. "I've also told him he has to tell me when he's going out and could you help him make a communications device so that he can call for back up?"

"Will do. How about an ear piece with GPS so we can keep tabs as he flings himself around the city?" Tony asked, jotting down notes on a random notepad on his desk.

"That's actually a very good idea." Steve said trying to hide how surprised he was. Normally he and Tony never agreed! Tony raised an eyebrow and glared.

"What else can I do for you?" Tony asked. "You seem to have something else on your mind."

"I was wondering if I could put you as Peter's guardian in my will. You know, if something happened to me, he would be looked after." Steve said.

Tony sat there in silence contemplating the request.

"You know what," Tony said. "No."

"What!" Steve asked immediately.

"No, Peter's already seventeen, when he's eighteen he won't need a guardian. Him not having a guardian in your will should give you more incentive not to die and leave the kid!" Tony pointed out.

"But-"

"No but's capsicle. I will not have you abandoning that kid!"

Steve wanted to glare at Tony but also thank him. His annoying logic sort of made sense. Sadly, that 'annoying logic' would not stop a bullet from stopping his heart.

Steve sighed in defeat and started to get up.

"Oh stop mopping, Rogers. Of course I'll do it. I just wanted to get my point across." Tony said, grinning.

"And if I die after his eighteenth birthday?" Steve asked.

"Steve," Tony said seriously, looking his friend in the eyes. "if anything happens to you, I will look after the kid. He'll have money if he wants it, a house if he needs it and friends even when he wants to be left alone. Like I told you when your idiot of a great whatsit ran off, you aren't the only one who cares about him. Even if I go out in bright lights and awesome glory, since we know that's the only way I'll ever die, Peter will be looked after. There's Pepper who would care for him with the drop of a hat, Natasha would help, Clint's always here, Bruce would die for the kid. Peter will be fine. All that being said, that doesn't give you a right to pop your clogs or kick the bucket."

Steve smirked.

"I don't plan on dying for a long while." Steve said seriously.

"Good, now get lost, I have sciency stuff to deal with." Tony waved Steve away.

"And I need to talk to Clint and Natasha about training Peter." Steve said, mentally going through his to do list.

"Wait, you're going to get them to train him?" Tony asked. Steve nodded. "Can I join?"

"Sure." Steve grinned.

"Oh and one last thing, Cap. I want an arm wrestle between you two." Tony called out.

Steve just laughed and left.

He then found Natasha and Clint in the simulator room. They had put it on a high level but seemed to be doing well. Steve noticed that they only had two minutes left so went and grabbed two bottles of water, he was sure they would want it.

He was right. Clint gulped down the water as if he had never tasted such a glorious drink.

"You seem to be taking this whole Spider-Man thing very well." Natasha said after sipping some of her own drink. "I expected you to freak out a bit more."

Steve smiled.

"Don't worry, I am freaking out. I'm just good at hiding it." Steve said.

"So, are you here to train or to talk?" Clint asked bluntly.

"Talk, actually. I was wondering if you would help train Peter. You know, build on his fighting skills so he's not fully relying on instinct." Steve said.

They both looked like they were considering it. Natasha nodded.

"That sounds feasible. When do you want him to start?" Natasha asked.

"Whenever he's ready." Steve answered. Steve walked them to the changing rooms while they discussed the different approaches in his training.

By the end of the day, they had set up a good training timetable and for the first time in a long time, things seemed to be looking up for everyone.

**DON'T FRET! So many of you got so paranoid that it ended last chapter! No, one more to go probably. What did you think of this chapter? Was it any good?**

**Two things.**

**1. Can I be so bold as to ask anyone who wants to (and is willing to) do some art for this? I've seen other aurthors ask and only now I've decided to ask. So please if you want to, will you please?**

**2. To those going back to school... Have fun? I think good luck is more appropriate ;)**


	26. Chapter 26

**And this took me _all day_ to write. (I started at 10. It's now 4.30)**

**Enjoy the last chapter and tell me what you think please :)**

* * *

><p>Steve and Peter were alone in the Avengers Mansion for the first two days. The others had gone to the Extremis hide out and – as Clint put it – they had blown it sky high. No one gave any real detail about what happened but from the burns, cuts and grazes it had been intense. All Peter knew was that they wouldn't be attacked by that group again. Bruce told him all he remembered. Apparently they were going to try and be stealthy but that flew out of the window when the flew closer and they saw several members grinning at them from the roof.<p>

Apparently, Tony got pissed off at them and lost it, jumping out of the quinjet and firing right left and centre. Bruce had followed suit when he saw them. He knew the other guy was coming out so he jumped as he transformed. He did remember feeling satisfaction as the Hulk smashed two people's heads in claiming it was for the Captain and for Peter even though, the big green guy had never met him.

When Tony got back though, he bought Peter a present. It was a brand new camera, exactly the same as the one he previously had. It even had the new lens his aunt had bought him. He used it instantly and snapped a picture of Tony in his damaged armour.

Peter decided to get back into photography. He realised he had sort of abandoned the hobby and decided to start filling in the picture books, just as his previous family members had.

He had pictures of all of the Avengers. Gwen came around with all the homework he had missed to prepare him for going back the next day. He got some pictures of her and she took one of him with Steve.

* * *

><p>Peter had not been allowed out on patrol for three more days. He kept complaining and moaning but it did nothing to make Steve change his mind. He felt fine! He begged, he moaned and he pleaded and <em>finally<em> on the third night, Steve cracked. Well, not completely but he did say that if his blood count was more his own than Steve's and he did not limp then he could go on patrol the next day.

In response, Peter ran to Tony's lab to tell him about the development. Tony grinned and started setting up an analytic machine which would declare the results while Peter sat on a table.

"So, excited to be whooping butt soon?" Tony asked as he jabbed a needle in Peter's arm. He wasn't a doctor but he had done enough research to know where to jab said needle. Peter's skin was strong though so he had to try extra hard.

"You would not believe it! I hate being cooped up!" Peter said dreamily.

"Well, I have a new suit for you. I can't believe you didn't like my idea with a titanium armour." Tony muttered.

"I like the design, it just looks so inflexible." Peter complained.

"It's plenty flexible! It's like my armour, that's flexible!" Tony argued.

"You're not doing flips." Peter countered.

Tony muttered something about 'technicalities'.

They sat in silence for a minute, waiting for the machine to stop making noise and declare the results.

Unknowingly, both people had the same thing on their mind: Doctor Connors. They had been skirting the issue every time they spoke. Peter was uncomfortable admitting his acquaintance with the man while Tony didn't want to admit that the guy was dead.

Tony was curious about the whole subject, and they weren't doing anything at this particular moment so he decided to broach the subject.

"So, remember that stuff I found. Research stuff. You never explained what that was about." Tony said, looking at the machine instead of Peter.

Peter started fiddling with his jumper sleeve.

"It was for Connors." Peter mumbled.

"Sorry, Pete. Not all of us have super hearing. What was that?" Tony asked, looking at Peter.

"I said it was for Connors. When I visited him, he asked for one of two things. Either complete his research on growing limbs or find a way to take away the Lizard element from his brain. So he didn't have two personalities." Peter explained. He stared down at his hands.

"So what did you choose?" Tony asked. And then, thinking further he added, "And why you? I mean, I get you're smart and stuff. An idiot a lot of the time but still smart. But still?"

Peter groaned, not wanting to explain. Then he remember the little voice in his head at hospital, telling him, no more lies!

"I chose to fix him. When he was fixed, he could continue his research. The guy really just wanted to help people!" Peter explained sadly. "As for 'why me', Isortofmightofhelpedmakethelizard."

Tony could not understand what Peter said since it came out as a mush of words at rocket speed.

"Come again." Tony prompted.

Peter took a deep breath.

"I helped him make the formula that turned him into the lizard." Peter explained.

Peter looked pleadingly at Tony and raised his hands in a defensive position.

"I didn't mean to!" he cried. "I just wanted to help and I thought I could and it all went wrong and-"

"Peter."

"- I just thought that with the research I had."

"PETER!"

Peter stopped rambling and looked at Tony.

"Thank you." Tony breathed out in relief. "Now, slow the hell down. Right, all I got out of that was that you helped make the lizard guy and it was an accident. Am I missing something."

Peter opened his mouth but Tony stopped him before any noise came out.

"And no more rambling." Tony said firmly.

Peter took another deep breath, forming the words he wanted to say in coherent sentences.

"You remember how I said I got bitten at OsCorp, after going to find someone who knew my dad?" Peter asked slowly.

Tony nodded.

"Connors was my dad's partner. I found a picture of the two of them in my dad's old briefcase that my uncle found. It also had some notes. I went to talk to Connors and showed him an algorithm that I worked out using my dad's notes and anything I could work out from Connors' research. We thought it worked." Peter started to talk faster now. "And then it went wrong and everything started going wrong and Connors transformed and I had to stop him!"

Peter let out a deep breath, scared Tony would shout at him for being an idiot and help making a man who became a monster.

"Why didn't you tell us? I mean, leave out how you got bit by a weird spider and all that so we didn't know you were Spider-Man. Why keep that part a secret?" Tony asked.

Peter looked back down at his hands. Tony walked up to the table Peter sat on and jumped up to join him.

"I thought you guys would be ashamed of me." Peter said quietly. It was so quiet Tony almost missed it.

Tony let out a small laugh and put an arm around Peter's shoulders, pulling him in for a one armed hug. He squeezed Peter's shoulder affectionately.

"Oh, Peter," Tony half laughed, half sighed. "You can be such an idiot. I hate this mushy stuff but you and Steve are both such idiots I've had to become the mushy guy. And the mushy guy says you're an idiot. You wanted to help someone and they made a mistake-"

"But-"

"No, let me finish. You're a kid! You were a younger kid then! You weren't in charge of the research, this guy should have run more tests, instead, I'm guessing he just went straight for it. Want me to tell you another reason you're an idiot?"

"Because I didn't tell you I was spidey?" Peter muttered. He'd heard that he was an idiot a lot over the past three days.

"No- well- sort of. Spidey is cool, it's your antics that were stupid. No, what makes you an idiot is that you kept your research a secret. We could have helped. Me and Brucie could have given you some points. Three minds being better than one and all that." Tony said, squeezing Peter's shoulder again.

"I- I know but-" Peter stopped, thinking before speaking again. He sighed in frustration. "Argh, it doesn't matter now! All my research to help Connors is destroyed and I have to start over!"

Tony turned serious.

"No, Peter. I'm sorry but that research is redundant now." he said clearly.

Peter looked up at him with questioning eyes. Tony ran his free hand through his hair.

"Connors didn't survive his encounter with us." Tony explained slowly.

Peter's face turned blank and he starred forwards. Tony felt Peter tense up.

Peter didn't say anything for over five minutes and Tony did something instinctual, he started rubbing Peter's back soothingly.

"Peter," Tony said after the long silence. "please say something."

Tony didn't expect what came next.

"Should I be upset by this?" Peter asked in a blank voice.

"How do you feel?" Tony countered.

"I'm not sure." Peter said. "The man has tried to kill me twice. But he knew about my dad and could tell me stuff. And he wanted to help people."

"Pete, I think I can't tell you how to feel. I'm not that great with emotions myself. But I can tell you one thing. You wanted to help him so he could help others. In respect for the man before the Lizard, we're going to cut out the middle man and help those people." Tony said encouragingly.

Peter thought about it for a moment.

"But what if I screw up again? I don't know what went wrong last time! How am I supposed to take off where he left off? I mean-"

"Breath kid." Tony cut in. "You won't screw up. I've already done some research on the subject of growing limbs back. Those people who blew up the building, they were part of a program that helped people grow limbs. If we worked together, combining research then we could help people without either side effects of people blowing up or becoming reptiles."

Peter took another deep breath before nervously nodding. Tony could see that Peter was plagued with doubts but he promised himself he would get him through them.

Tony jumped off the table when a loud ding filled the room.

"Sir," Jarvis called out. "The results declare that Mister Parker's blood count is sixty seven percent his own and thirty three percent Mister Rogers."

Tony sent Peter a warm smile.

"Hear that kiddo? Your gramps can't keep you in tomorrow." Tony said encouragingly.

Peter sent Tony a weak smile. He quietly thanked Tony before going off to his room.

Tony didn't talk to anyone but Bruce about what he and Peter discussed until the next day. Even with Bruce he was brief. He explained that their new project would be working with Peter and building on Connors' research. He gave him a basic run down of how the two knew each other and left it at that.

He was in his office thinking about how Peter responded to him finding out. Peter had hardly looked at him since they talked. He said good morning and bye at breakfast as he ran off to school. Did he really know them so little? Thinking they would abandon him, it was outrageous.

"Sir, Mister Rogers is coming to talk to you." Jarvis announced.

"Right, right, let him in." Tony waved off.

Not a minute later, the door opened and in walked Steve in jeans and a plain white shirt.

Tony brushed his previous thoughts away and leaned back into his chair.

"Hey Steve, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Tony asked.

Steve walked into the room and sat across from Tony.

"Not that I don't enjoy a conversation with you," Steve said in a slightly mocking voice. He gave a small smile which Tony returned. "but when you saw Peter, did you notice something off about him?"

"What happened?" Tony asked.

Of course he was going to tell Steve what happened, he just wanted to know if it would take an hour to explain or if it would take five minutes.

"He seemed unfocused and just out of it. If he's distracted, do you think its a good idea to let him go out as Spider-Man?" Steve asked, concerned.

"You can't keep the kid locked up forever." Tony pointed out.

"I know, I know. I just wish he'd tell me what was wrong." Steve sighed.

"I told him about Connors." Tony said. He put a hand up to stop Steve talking. "He told me the connection between him and Connors and it sort of came out. Well, I say he told me. It was more, I questioned him, he answered quietly and I told him to turn up the volume. Can you believe he trusted us so little he thought we'd be upset with him because of his connection with Connors?"

Steve looked confused so Tony told him everything they talked about.

It took a good half hour to explain everything. When they finished, Jarvis spoke up.

"Sir, Director Fury is calling."

"I'm busy."

"Unless you're dying, I don't care." came the voice of Fury.

A screen appeared at the end of the desk showing Fury. He looked at both of them.

"I hear that you know Peter's secret now?" He asked. It was obvious he knew the answer.

"Which one?" Tony snorted.

"Connors." Fury prompted.

"Yes." Steve said.

"Then you know what me and Mister Parker were discussing?" Fury asked.

"I have a few ideas." Steve nodded.

"Well, please kick the doubt out of that kid. He could be great one day if he stopped doubting himself and taking everyone's failures personally." Fury said firmly.

Steve and Tony both muttered their agreements.

"Anyway, I phoned to talk to Stark. SHIELD has plans to invent three knew helicarriers." Fury explained.

"Isn't that the Project Insight stuff?" Tony asked.

Fury glared at him.

"Which apparently I know nothing about." Tony said with an innocent smile.

Steve stood up.

"I'll leave you two to your work." Steve said, smiling at Tony's antics.

"Oh, before you go. I plan to show Peter his new suit when he gets back. Bring him down to Lab two when you're ready." Tony said before waving him off and turning his attention to Fury. All Steve heard as he left was about incorporating repulsor technology.

* * *

><p>Peter came back in a puff, like he had literally run home from school. He also had a big grin on. Steve met him at the mansion entrance.<p>

"So, I can go out now." Peter puffed out, his grin growing. Steve just rustled his hair.

"Jarvis," Steve called out. "Can you tell Tony we're coming to join him in lab two?"

"Of course, sir." Jarvis replied.

Peter's grin seemed to grow, not that Steve thought that was possible. It took them five minutes to get there with Peter leading. Steve hadn't thought to learn where the labs were since he had never been great at science. Especially now when it was too advance for him to really comprehend. Peter had been in and out of the labs constantly, building and advancing his web shooters. Tony had been in awe of Peter's skill when he found that they'd previously been made out of an old watch and other nick knacks found around the house.

Tony stood, holding the door open with a mischievous grin on his face. He ushered them in. There were machines everywhere. Some sat on steel tables scattered around the room. Others stood alone, too big to fit on a table. Some of the machines were whizzing or beeping with flashing lights as others sat in silence. Peter noticed that some tables had half finished constructs while others were strewn with paper or empty.

At the end of the room was a beautiful red and blue suit with intricate webbing design and a mask with big bug eyes. It looked identical to his last suit other than it was more buff.

"Okay, since you _disregarded,_" Tony mockingly spat the word out. "my last suit idea, I took the idea from that web stuff. Making the costume of light but strong material. The costume itself it strong but then I added extra kevlar underneath to buff it up. And don't worry your pretty head about flexibility. It won't counter any of that."

Peter didn't say anything, he just gawked at it, looking forwards to putting it on.

"Now, for my payment." Tony grinned. Peter spun around too quickly. "I demand to have that arm wrestle between you and Steve."

Steve just shrugged and Peter begrudgingly agreed, dragging his feet as he walked away from the costume.

The two relatives stood opposite each other with a clear table in between them. They got in position, bending down so their elbows lay on the table and gripped the others hand.

Tony stood at the end of the table.

"3. 2. 1." he counted. "GO!"

Steve pushed against Peter but Peter just held his arm there. Steve started pushing harder, the muscles in his arm pulsing at the surface. Still, Peter just held firm. Their hands shook at the strengths being used. Sure, it started to feel harder but then Peter pushed against him and Steve's arm slowly but surely made its way down to the surface of the table. Tony stood there laughing.

Peter did a victory bow. Smirking at Steve.

"Ha, Steve. You're weaker than a kid! And he's still not one hundred percent!" Tony mocked.

Steve just rolled his eyes.

"Can I go now?" Peter begged.

"Kill joy." Tony muttered.

"Go get changed then." Steve rolled his eyes again but grinned.

Peter was out of the room like a shot.

He was back in the room in two minutes, admiring the suit and how comfortable it felt. The mask was in his hands.

"I know we've talked about this but it's really weird seeing you in that." Tony said honestly. Steve just nodded.

"So, before you go, do you have your comm?" Steve asked.

"Already in." Peter pointed to the little device barely visible in his ear.

"Remember to call in if you need help." Steve said.

"I know." Peter rolled his eyes.

"And be back by six. Remember, you have a training session tonight so don't try anything to strenuous." Steve insisted. He sounded like a parent telling their child about a party they were going to.

"Yeah, yeah." Peter said like a stropy teen. "We've gone through the timetable over a hundred times. Can I go now?"

"Okay, okay. Just be careful." Steve finished.

"Will do." Peter grinned. He ran out of the room.

* * *

><p>Tony had set the GPS tracker to be sent back to his system but also Steve's personal computer. Steve sat there reading his book at the kitchen table. At least, it looked like he might if there wasn't his laptop sitting in front of him with a red dot zipping across a map of Manhattan on the screen. Natasha walked in and wandered over to the fridge.<p>

"You know, he might make a mistake because he thinks someone's stalking him." Natasha teased, grabbing a bottle of water.

"I'm just making sure he's alright." Steve explained too quickly.

"Uh huh." Natasha raised an eyebrow.

She moved to the table and sat down opposite Steve. She smirked.

"You know, I never took you as a mother hen." Natasha said.

"I'm not!" Steve claimed. "I'm just..."

"Paranoid?" Natasha asked, her grin spreading.

Steve gave a dry laugh.

"Is it that obvious?" he asked.

"Even the Hulk would be able to tell." Natasha shrugged.

Steve groaned but his eyes flashed back to the screen quickly.

Natasha rolled her eyes and snatched up the laptop. She snapped the lid shut and looked bored.

"If you're so paranoid, why did you let him go out before we had any training sessions." Natasha asked.

"Peter gave an annoyingly good argument about wanting to go out. How he was still alive without training and he only wanted a few hours. And how first hand action would warm him up for training." Steve listed grumpily.

"So, I hear you got beaten in an arm wrestle with him to." She mocked. "Beaten in an argument and an arm wrestle."

Steve just glared at Natasha. She grinned in response and took a swing of her water.

"Admit it, you let him out because he has you wrapped around his little finger." Natasha smirked. "It's like watching a kid beg for candy. In the end, the kid gets what he wants."

Steve just huffed. Natasha laughed and opened up the laptop and pushed it back towards Steve.

"Go back to your stalking and call me when he gets back. If this is his warm up then we'll get straight to training." Natasha said with an evil smile.

Steve almost felt sorry for Peter. He looked back at the screen and saw that Peter was heading back to the tower.

It took him twenty minutes to get back. Steve saw three diversions on the way back. He later found that it was a case of bullies picking on a younger kid, a mugging and someone trying (and failing) to kidnap a young woman.

When Peter was only a minute away, Steve shut the laptop and headed for the boy's room. He opened the window and waved to Peter as he swung over. It was very strange to see him fully clad in his Spider-Man costume.

Steve moved out of the way as Peter landed on the windowsill.

"Hey Steve." Peter said cheerfully.

Peter jumped in through the window and pulled off his mask. His hair was a mess but he was practically glowing.

"Good day?" Steve asked mockingly.

"Oh, I forgot how great it is to be out there!" Peter swooned. He practically fluttered to his bed before collapsing down on it. He rolled over to look at Steve. "The thrill, the speed, the wind! And then there's helping people."

Peter looked Steve straight in the eyes, his grin spread further and his head dropped to the bed.

"I helped on girl from a kidnapping and she gave me a kiss." Peter blushed.

Peter's grin was infectious, Steve laughed and grinned widely.

"You might not want to mention that to Gwen." Steve pointed out innocently.

Peter's smile dropped instantly.

"You wouldn't tell her?" He asked in horror.

"I wouldn't but I don't think it's wise to mention that in front of Clint or Tony." Steve laughed.

Peter nodded slowly.

"Never." He muttered quietly.

Steve laughed again before pushing Peter off his bed. The boy sprung to his feet.

"Come on now, time to go to training. I'll tell Natasha you're on your way." Steve said.

Peter gave a mocking two finger salute before he walked out of the room.

"Jarvis." Steve called out.

"Miss Romanoff has been informed." Jarvis said from the ceiling.

"Thank you." Steve acknowledged.

Peter got to the training room to see Natasha in work out clothes and Clint was apparently changing into work out clothes.

"Nice uniform." Natasha teased.

Peter rolled his eyes and brushed it off.

"While Clint is taking his time getting changed, I'll run you through the first exercise." Natasha said, turning very serious. "I'm going to show you some hand to hand combat moves and when I think you've got them down, I'm going to spar with you. If we have time, I'm going to turn the simulator on and have machines shooting at you. At the same time, me and Clint will be attacking."

"That sounds hard." Peter whined.

"For the hand to hand combat, you are to ignore your extra senses but you can use then during the simulation." Natasha said before walking into the training room.

Within an hour, Peter learnt and perfected simple blocking skills. He knew how to block but some of these moves caused pain to the one trying to hit you. Like knife slicing at the wrist or whacking a certain part of the leg to prevent being kicked.

More than ten times that evening, Peter ended up on his arse. Clint squatted on a higher level, laughing at Peter every time Natasha got the upper hand. More than once, Peter had accidentally slipped and used his spider sense.

Natasha kept a tally of how often he did it. Taking into account his strength, she declared that for each slip up he had to do one hundred press ups before going to bed.

"But- surely I should pay attention to it and not think of it as a bad thing." Peter complained.

"No, you should learn to control it. If you're out on the street, out of costume, if someone throws a piece of paper at your head, do you want to swing around and cause a scene?" Natasha asked.

There was no more arguing after that, just a lot of Peter mumbling and grumbling.

They didn't get to turn on the simulator that night but Peter had to do five hundred push ups before bed. Natasha brought her book with her as she sat there half paying attention, half reading. She made Peter count out loud.

Not surprisingly, sleep came easily to Peter that night. He just collapsed on his bed and he was out like a light. Peter was woken by Steve knocking his door at quarter to eight the next morning. Peter had to rush to get up, he hadn't meant to sleep in.

Peter then ended up having an argument with Steve about swinging to and from school. So that people wouldn't associate the kid coming and going out of the Avengers mansion as Spider-Man, he would walk two blocks before changing and swinging off. Steve didn't like the idea since Peter might not have had breakfast or might be half asleep. The argument was ended quickly though. Peter claimed that he did it a lot anyway and that he got to stop some crimes in the morning. Steve finally gave in.

The media had picked up on a teen seen with the Avengers and going in and out of the Avengers' Tower and now the Avengers' Mansion. Thanks to Fury though, they could never get a clear shot. A few people had questioned Tony during interviews but he brushed them off. They had all agreed to try and keep Peter out of the media's eye. That included black out windows, secret entrances and having Happy Hogan on journalist control when Peter went out with one of the more prominent members like Tony.

Training happened every day. Some days Natasha would teach him a new move and they would spar or Clint would fire countless arrows with different abilities making Peter dance around the room.

For more of a challenge, Steve would train Peter in sparring sometimes. Although Captain America's shield was an iconic symbol, Peter was learning to hate it. The biggest reason for that is probably because it really _really _hurts when it whacks you.

Peter started getting up an hour early to spar with Steve. Sometimes Natasha would join in. Or they would turn on the simulator and work together. Steve just shook his head at all Peter's terrible puns. Peter would then swing to school and swing home. That or he would go to Gwen's house. Then he would patrol and be back in time for training. Apparently, training would calm down once his skill improved, which, by Natasha's account, would only take a month.

It was a week after all of this training had come into play that the Avengers got called out on a mission. Apparently, different gangs had decided to have a death match in central Hong Kong. Peter hadn't been allowed to go.

The thing with these gangs was that it wasn't the normal type. There were mutants and super powered villains along with a couple of people with self made weapons. Someone had stolen state secrets and was trying to sell of their knowledge when too many people found out and started chasing that person.

Steve had phoned him up during lunch break to explain it.

Peter really hadn't been expecting the phone call. He had been talking with Gwen about how evil Clint was during training when his phone rang. He knew it was Steve because of caller ID.

"Hey Steve." Peter said cautiously. Steve never rang if he could help it, especially not while he was at school.

"Hi Peter, I just thought I'd ring to say, you're home alone tonight." Steve's voice came through the phone.

"Wait, what?" Peter asked.

"Peter, are you out of class?" Steve asked.

"Yeah?" Peter was getting really confused.

"Go around the back of your school and I'll meet you there. I only have a few minutes." Steve said.

Peter ran around to the back of the school. Gwen followed as quickly as she could. There was a small area where the bins were kept, there stood Captain America. It was actually quite weird.

"Hey Steve." Peter said again. Now he was really confused.

"Hi Pete." Steve said. He always seemed more confident in uniform. "Look, we're going on a mission so I thought I should tell you."

"We?" Peter asked.

"The Avengers. No, you can't come, you need to stay at school." Steve said, answering the unspoken question.

"How long will you be gone?" Peter asked.

"Hopefully, no more than a day or two." Steve said with a small smile. I'll be back for the weekend."

Peter grinned back.

"Peter, please don't patrol while I'm gone." Steve begged.

Peter glared at him.

"Fine, just be careful and call Fury if you need back up." Steve told him.

Peter gave an annoyed huff but didn't object. He then heard murmuring coming from Steve's ear.

"I've got to go." Steve said, he looked a little sad at that. He pulled Peter in for a quick hug.

"Don't forget to eat and don't be late for school. And behave yourself!" Steve said quickly.

"Yeah, yeah." Peter laughed. "Just be careful, okay?"

Steve gave a mocking salute.

"Hi Gwen." he called out before leaping onto a nearby bin and propelling himself into the wall opposite and spring back and forth until he got to the roof.

It took them almost four days to get back. Apparently they had been working with a group of mutants called X-Men and they had to go to their mansion to talk about boring politics. That was how Steve phrased it. Apparently Fury had been trying to get them to work with SHIELD for a while now and this could be the tipping point to get them to join.

It also meant that Steve missed the weekend. He got back a four am on Monday morning and found Peter slumped on his bed in his Spider-Man costume. Steve just picked the teen up and put him under the covers, instead of on top of them.

* * *

><p>Gwen came to the mansion a lot. They had added an underground tunnel to get to and from the mansion since people had worked out that the Avengers <em>all <em>lived there. Gwen was always using the tunnel to get in unnoticed. They hoped to get a glimpse of them and the weird kid who also lived there. Internet conspiracies on why he was there were endless. Many times when Gwen came over, they could be found in the living room with Peter's laptop in front of them laughing at what people came up with. Apparently he was Tony Stark's son. He was also an alien and a robot. There were much weirder ones but they made Peter just shiver thinking about them. Natasha once got a picture of the two of them rolling around the floor crying with laughter using Peter's camera.

The last time Gwen came over, Gwen teamed up with Pepper. Both started arguing with their boyfriends about how neither was getting enough sleep.

Steve came in mid argument and declared that Peter could not patrol past midnight on school nights and that ended that. Tony didn't get out so easily. Pepper seemed to have calmed down by dinner though and they all had a wonderful meal. Well, wonderful for some. Bruce pulled Gwen into a discussion on his latest research into gamma and how it might be able to be used as an energy source. Peter and Steve were laughing at Tony as Clint expertly flicked peas at the billionaire. Natasha kept berating the archers aim, claiming that he couldn't hit certain places like the back of his head. Of course, being who he was, Clint took this as a challenge and did intricate aims, bouncing peas of the wall to ricochet back to the targets.

The evening ended nicely with Peter getting a picture of everyone together. It took a couple of goes because Pepper was glaring at Tony in one picture. The next one had Clint diving across the table to attack Tony and the last one had everyone smiling but Tony was in a headlock. It would have to do.

* * *

><p>The next Saturday evening, Peter was sitting, watching men dressed as typical thieves, black trousers, black shirts and some even had black ski masks. This was a gun trade. One group of five came with guns, and one group of seven came with a whole lot of cash. Peter watched the transaction. He even took a photo since the police were always sceptical about arresting people he had caught. It really annoyed him.<p>

Peter watched as the leader of the group that came with the money tested the weight of an Uzi. It looked like he might be about to add in some ammo when Spider-Man thought he should intervene. He used webbing to yank the gun from the leaders hands and laughed at the man's shock. That _always_ made him grin. People were just so unsuspecting. He bounced onto the car bonnet, slamming it shut on one of the gang member's hand. The man made a high pitch scream.

"Wow, dude." Spider-Man cried out, diving forwards to take a gun away from one of the men. They were all pulling out their weapons. "I don't normally hit women. I take it from that harmonious screech that that's what I've done?"

_Okay,_ thought Spider-Man, _Not my greatest quip but oh well._

Someone lunged but Peter blocked before doing a roundhouse kick. He flipped over two people, smashing their heads together as he landed. One by one, the men fell. Spider-Man brushed his hands together for a job well done before his spidey sense went through the roof. He spun around only for the sense to die quickly with a loud thud and another scream. Peter saw an arrow poking out of the ground with a gun next to it.

"Did you forget one of my first rules to you?" Clint asked as he jumped down from a fire escape. "Even the ones that scream like sissies need to be knocked out."

"Sorry Clint." Spider-Man grumbled.

"Annnnnd?" Clint drew out the word for as long as possible.

"I could have taken him!" Spider-Man argued. Clint grinned and raised a finger, wagging it in front of his face.

"But you didn't, I did." Clint pointed out.

"Thank you, Clint." Peter said dryly. It was obvious he was rolling his eyes under the mask.

"You are very welcome, spidey." Clint mocked.

"Is there a reason you're stalking me or are you just here to annoy me?" Peter asked.

"Can't I just want a chat?" Clint asked innocently.

"You never _just _want a chat." Peter noted.

"Good point." Clint sighed. "Fine, I've just finished speaking to Fury. He's talked to all of us, I was just the last to talk to him."

Peter was about to question him when Clint put up a hand to stop him.

"We want you to join the Avengers. More of a temp member than anything else. That means on weekends and holiday you get to join us on missions. You still have to go to school though." Clint finished.

"How did Steve take this?" Peter asked suspiciously.

"Surprisingly well, actually. I think he's going to use it as another way to keep an eye on you." Clint said, amused.

Peter groaned. Clint put an arm around Peter's shoulders.

"Cheer up, Spidey. Pepper's out on work so we get take away! None of that healthy stuff. We're getting pizza. Teens like that, right?" Clint asked like he was truly confused.

"Pizza is awesome! Who doesn't like it?" Peter asked incredulously.

"Well, Nat's not to into it. Then again, she thinks watching movies are pointless." Clint said, shaking his head remorsefully.

"She's a strange one." Peter nodded.

"Anyway, race you home!" Clint shouted, running out of the alleyway to his bike.

Peter missed his Aunt and Uncle. He would have liked to know his parent and grandparents but that didn't matter. Peter's life was great, his family was great and he wouldn't change that for anything in the world.

**Mushy ending, I know, sorry.**

**Please tell me what you think one last time. It can be one word if you want or a full description, I don't mind. Just thank you for your support.**

**IMPORTANT**

**I will be doing one shots of everyone's lives when I can.**

**TO MY BEAUTIFUL ARTISTS**

**I will be contacting you individually but I'll say it here anyway.**

**when you're done, send me a link and I'll put it on another chapter for people to look at.**

**As payment, I want you to give me an idea for one of the chapters in my one shot story. It will be dedicated to you. If I do not contact you, I'm sorry. Contact me and shout at me for being an idiot then tell me your idea!**

**Thank you everyone, if I could, I would thank you all personally face to face but I cannot. Instead, I say this. I want to thank you for helping me write, for your ideas and your support. Without you, we would not have a story.**

**Have a wonderful morning/evening/afternoon!**

**PS. To people hoping for Iron Spider, I'm well educated in the matter, I'm just not a big fan of it I'm afraid.**


	27. Sequel!

**I've never done an AN before but here it goes. There's a sequel to Great Grandpa Cap. It was meant to be part of the one shot stories I'm working on but it became a bit too long and I decided to post it anyway. **

**Find it at Avengers/Captain America page titled ****Great Grandma's Guest****.**

**I asked people if anyone would willingly draw something for my story, here are the beautiful pieces people made for me. Hopefully more to come.**

**sisca8bailey . deviantart art / Cover-For-youngjusticefan-s-Great-Grandpa-Cap-481408636**

**phee – evans .deviantart art / Great – grandpa – Cap – 491364975**

**Hopefully more links to come. Enjoy Great Grandma's Guest!**


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